French taxis went on a nationwide strike on Thursday, snarling traffic in major cities after weeks of rising, sometimes violent tensions over Uber. Travellers hoping to catch a flight walked alongside highways with their bags, and riot police in Paris fired tear gas canisters to clear strikers from a main entrance to the city.
Despite repeated rulings against Uber’s lowest-cost offering, its drivers continue to ply French roads and the American mobile ride-calling company is actively recruiting drivers and passengers alike. Uber claims to have 400,000 customers a month in France.
France’s top security official said he had ordered an immediate ban on the service in the Paris region but called for an end to violence against Uber drivers. “We are calling for calm. We are in a state of law,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
Uber’s more expensive livery service is still legal but a source of intense frustration for French taxi drivers, who pay tens of thousands of euros for the equivalent of medallions, and who face customer complaints that they are being resistant to changes such as credit cards and geolocation. Taxi drivers complain that livery services like Uber unfairly undercut them and in recent weeks nearly 100 Uber drivers have been attacked, sometimes while carrying customers. — AP
