The main streets of Bogotá will turn yellow Wednesday as tens of thousands of taxis strike in an anti-UBER protest. An estimated 300,000 cabs in 23 cities across Colombia are involved in the strike that will block major intersections.
In the Colombian capital, the protest will gather at the Plaza de Bolívar, where some 52,000 drivers will pressure the government to ban the online UBER App and other digital platforms. According to organizers of the strike, the unregulated UBER service has reduced between 60% and 70% the work productivity of yellow cab drivers. The Ministry of Technology and Information (MinTic), which regulates these applications claims that prohibiting Uber and other digital platforms violates the principle of internet neutrality in Colombia.
According to Hugo Ospina, president of the National Association of Taxi Drivers, the indefinite strike is also motivated by government’s “inaction” to revoke the operating licenses of foreign–based companies that offer premium transportation services.
At 5am the taxis in the Colombian capital began gathering at 10 key points, that include: Calle 145 between 104 and 109; Exito at Calle 170 and AutoNorte; San Andrés park, near the TransMilenio Portal 80; Parque Simón Bolívar with Calle 63 and Carrera 60; Techo; Engativá and the AutoSur near Bosa.
In order to avoid mobility problems Wednesday, the mayoralty has advised citizens to give extra time is trying to get from one place in the capital to the next, car share, and if possible work from home. As of 8am, the taxis will proceed with their go-slow operación tortuga towards the center. However, by 9am traffic was moving smoothly along major roads such as the Carrera Séptima and Avenida El Dorado.
Concerned that the strike could collapse Bogotá’s already difficult mobility issues, representatives of the Transport Secretary and strike organizers reached an agreement on Tuesday night to “guarantee calm in the city.”
Ever since UBER launched its Colombia application in 2013, the private car service provider has faced a barrage of opposition. In 2015, President Juan Manuel Santos President Santos stepped in and issued the company an ultimatum to formalise its business operations. On May 14 2016, the first major protest was held by yellow cabs in Bogotá, causing widespread disruption to the city’s transportation grid.
While in London black cab drivers have held peaceful protests over the UBER business model, in Bogotá, the rivalry between the official city yellow cabs and privately-owned car transporters has turned nasty with incidents of attacks on UBER passengers by angry mobs of taxistas.
There is also the issue of perception. While passengers must sit in the back of a yellow cab with all the required national transportation identification, from license plate number on sides and roof, UBER clients are encouraged to sit in the front seat to avoid the car being identified by transit police as a cab.
The yellow cab drivers also insist that UBER has an unfair advantage by cost-cutting fares during off -peak hours and that private car owners do not purchase the “cupo” – the right to transport passengers – and surcharge that is added to the price of a registered yellow car and can cost as much as $90 million pesos (US$ 30,000). The cab drivers also state that the vehicles of the white premium service companies such as Cabify are registered outside Bogotá – Mosquera and Funza – to avoid paying the city’s hefty mobility tax.
On Thursday, some 350,000 teachers affiliated to the public school system represented by FECODE have announced they will go on strike over the government’s salary increase and changes to to their health plan. The strike by the nation’s teachers will be “indefinite.”
