In Montreal, cabbies set sights on Uber drivers
On Wednesday, instead of chasing down fares, Montreal taxi drivers will be after a different sort of prize. They have declared an “Uber hunt” aimed at bagging drivers with the unlicensed ridesharing service.
Benoît Jugand, spokesman for RTAM-Métallos, the union representing 4,000 taxi drivers, said Tuesday that roaming taxi squads will establish “blockades” of unspecified areas where Uber drivers pick up and drop off customers.
Last week, two Montreal taxi drivers got an early start on hunting season, cornering an Uber driver and smashing his cellphone in front of television cameras. The growing frustration is a sign that authorities have been slow to react to the arrival of Uber, which has disrupted a heavily regulated marketplace by injecting price competition and convenience.
“The uncertainty and the cost incurred by the taxi drivers, who are really losing business (to Uber), has escalated,” said Youri Chassin, an economist with the Montreal Economic Institute. “We are faced with a situation that is really tense.”
Hassan Kattoua, an independent driver who says he paid $160,000 for a taxi licence in 2003, said cabbies have grown desperate as they see their revenues and the value of their licences plummet. That is why he donned a sheriff ’s costume last week and, with a fellow driver, called on an Uber driver. When the driver arrived, they seized his iPhone and smashed it with a hammer. (Kattoua said he first ensured the phone belonged to Uber and not the driver.)
“I don’t feel sorry at all when I destroy something that belongs to Uber, because it’s an illegal company,” he said.
Kattoua said he is entitled to take the law into his own hands because the government has “turned a blind eye” to Uber’s activities. “If I go and invade your country, and you use force to defend yourself against that invasion, would a third party come and say, ‘Why are you using force?’ ”
Jugand accused Premier Philippe Couillard of escalating tensions by refusing a union request that the province order Uber to shut down. “We’ve appealed for calm from the taxi industry, but the premier keeps pouring oil on the fire,” he said Tuesday.
The anti-Uber anger is not unique to Montreal. In Toronto, a cabbie made news in December when he grabbed onto the door handle of an Uber car and was dragged down a street during a pro- test there. The city’s taxi drivers have announced plans for another mass anti-Uber protest this weekend, timed to coincide with NBA all-star game festivities in Toronto.
In Ottawa, cabbies have confronted Uber drivers, and one video last summer showed a man warning a Uber driver outside a downtown hotel that he would be “dead meat” if he caught him again.
Xavier Van Chau, a spokesman for Uber Canada, said the company has advised its Montreal drivers to be careful Wednesday and to avoid overreacting if confronted by angry cabbies.
MONTREAL CABBIES DECLARE OPEN SEASON ON THE RIDESHARING SERVICE
“What we’ve seen across Canada is, generally, intimidation tactics don’t bear fruit,” he said. “We’ve seen protests in Edmonton and in Toronto and in Quebec in the past, and I don’t think Canadians see this kind of activity favourably.”
Chassin, the economist, said Uber is too deeply entrenched to be shut down. “I think everyone realizes that this technological innovation is here to stay,” he said. “It’s how do we get (Uber and taxis) to compete on a level playing field without making any big losers?”
The challenge is compensating taxi drivers for the expensive licences that are rendered virtually worthless by Uber’s unlicensed drivers driving private cars.
Edmonton, which last month became the first city to legalize such ride-sharing applications as Uber, will require companies entering the market to pay a fee, but is not offering compensation to taxi drivers.
Chassin said a better model is emerging in some Australian states, where a temporary $1-per-ride tax is being proposed for all trips — taxi or Uber. The revenue would be used to buy back taxi licences from drivers, albeit at a discount.
“We feel the burden of taxi drivers, who had a lot of money invested in taxi licences, and maybe there’s an amount that can be negotiated,” Chassin said. “But at the end of the day, they need to negotiate.”
For now, Montreal cabbies appear to have chosen intimidation and disruption, which typically is not a recipe for winning public sympathy.