Estefania lives in Itambe Mini in the city of Posadas. One night he asked for an Uber into the city, and he went outside her house to wait for her. Just as the app tells her her Uber is coming, she sees a cab turning the corner and drives down her block.
Estefi panicked. He knew that many taxi drivers and bus drivers were against the use of the application, and had heard rumors of episodes in which drivers or Uber users had been ambushed., To her surprise, after turning around a couple of times, the taxi driver came up to her and introduced himself as her Uber driver.
Formally, Uber began operating in the city of Posadas in 2016. However, due to the bringing together of drivers and taxis and various complaints from labor unions, It was not until last year that the application started to become popular, with both users and drivers growing in number, even former taxi drivers can be found using the platform.
In the midst of the platform’s popularity, the city demands that the multinational company conform to municipal regulations under the threat of taking the page down. In New Today We spoke to taxi drivers and Uber drivers to get the full facts about the taxi driver business and its Conditions that led many people to choose the platform as an alternative,
Taxi business
Claudio has worked as a taxi driver for 15 years. Only this year, after a long wait, he was able to get a license and is working from his taxi, For 13 years, he had to work by hiring someone else’s taxi. in conversation with New Today Explained the background of the work of the taxi driver.
The license which enables a car owner to use it as a taxi is issued by each municipality, which limits them based on the amount of population so that The offer is not saturated and a price can be maintained that is both competitive but can cover the cost of service and living of the driver,
In Posadas, Claudio estimates there must be at least 1,700 licenses between taxis and remis. If a person has a car and wants to use it as a taxi, You should go to the municipality and sign up for the long list of people waiting to be issued a license.,
The license is also a way of ensuring that the cars in circulation are in good condition. For annual renewal, the vehicle’s insurance and verification papers are presented and it is inspected whether the doors, windows, air conditioning and meters are working.,
New licenses are given when another taxi driver cannot or does not want to renew his. in this matter, The license goes back to the municipality, which should theoretically be given to the first person on the waiting list who meets the requirements and passes the relevant tests and controls. However, when a taxi driver gets tired and no longer wants to drive on the roads, he must rent his taxi before the license is handed over, which is why some licenses are not renewed.
Legally, a license holder cannot sell it to another, he can only transfer it to another person through a notary public. however, he Due to the need to have one, added to the long wait to obtain it legally, he opened a parallel business selling already licensed taxis.
When Claudio started the business, a license cost practically the same as a car. If someone wants to buy a Fiat Uno and convert it into a taxi, I practically had to buy it twice. However, keeping a taxi for hire is no longer as attractive as it used to be, and given the risk of breaking it down and the cost of repairs and maintenance, selling it is becoming more convenient.
This has caused license prices to drop in recent years, leaving Claudio in debt and eventually buying his own for 450,000 pesos.
For many people, the price is well worth it to escape the rental system. ,Nowadays, it depends on the owner etc., taxi fare is between $5,000 and $6,000 per day, from there you have to add fuel, DGI if it’s in a company, application“, counts Claudio,So you start with a negative balance of $10,000, per day. To make that money, and to make the money that you have left, you have to put in more or less 16 hours a day,
Due to the difficulty of accessing a qualifying license, most taxis operating through the streets of Posadas are for-hire, although this is no longer profitable for many. Even having a single car for rent, having a fleet of five, ten or fifteen cars is a good deal.
Uber case
On the other side is Laura Britos, who lives with her partner and their two children. Although both work in the morning, rise in prices and fall in purchasing power They got him to download the Uber app so that between themselves they could try to earn extra money with the car.
In conversation with NEA TODAY, he remarked that to register the car, and for him as a driver, the application asked him for practically the same documents that the municipality would request for the authorization of taxis: registration, green card. , insurance, criminal record, etcetera. The only thing he didn’t ask you is the general condition of the vehicle, etc. It will be the responsibility of the passengers to evaluate this, who may qualify it negatively if the windows do not open or the air conditioning does not work.
After going to work in the morning and having lunch with her kids, Laura takes the car first to pick up passengers. When you activate the app, it asks you to take a photo to verify your identity, and waits for you to indicate the destination of the next passenger.,
Laura uses the app from 2:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., when she finally returns home to be with her kids. Then comes the turn of his partner, who uses the car till 1 or 2 in the morning. Besides, He should take the time to clean the car every three or four days and get all the red tape and checks done as soon as possible to continue driving.
Despite the fact that the platform is not yet widespread in the posadas, Laura assures that in each of these shifts they carry 6 or 7 passengers. Therefore, They add up to about a million pesos a week. From this, of course, they have to make a discount on gasoline, controls and repairs that the car must undergo.
If you consider fuel, insurance, VTV and every car, the money earned per month is not that much operating eight or ten hours a day would require more and more repairs until it was replaced after about ten years, However, it serves as an additional income for a family whose wages are getting lower and lower.
At some point, the offer may become saturated and it will be hard for drivers to differentiate, but for now it is proving to be an option for those who Earn extra income by driving your car,
offering the possibility to work to drivers who would otherwise be willing to work as taxi drivers, but They have been put off by the lack of access to licenses and how difficult it is to generate income by hiring someone.
In it, Claudio is critical when he says that “the taxi drivers are to blame for the people who stopped using taxis.” little by little, Posada passengers are increasingly using the platform. Apart from the price, users feel more secure having driver data on their phones.
“The people to blame who stop using taxis are the taxi drivers”, Claudio, Taxi Driver
Taxis have the driver’s data on a file hanging behind the seat, so passengers can simply take a photo to report any complaints, but It has been observed that the accessibility and convenience of having data in applications gives them a greater sense of security.
Even then, Rating system urges drivers not to skimp on cleaning or air conditioning, which is usually a frequent complaint among taxi passengers. Everything indicates that the device is here to stay and continues to generate reactions from people. Now it has to be seen what happens in the city battle that the multinational company follows of standard current.
