Uber allows customers to submit a trip request, which is routed to crowd-sourced taxi drivers. You don’t have to enter an address – the driver uses geolocation to find the client – and with one click of a button, users receive back estimated arrival time of the nearest cabs, their color and models, the cost of the rides, and the name and photograph of the drivers. No money need change hands because fares are automatically charged on credit cards.
Use of the app is proving especially popular among the clubbing crowd, as well as with those looking for a cheaper ride to and from the city airport.
Uber launched in 2011 in San Francisco, California and quickly spread to more than 250 cities in 55 countries. The app’s rapid surge led to a rash of legal injunctions and protests by established cab drivers in cities in the United States and other countries. Several major cities have banned Uber, including Brussels, Belgium and Delhi, India.
After several recent demonstrations by Guadalajara taxi drivers, Jalisco Labor Secretary Eduardo Almaguer said last week that Uber is registered as “technology service concern” and not a public transportation provider and therefore in breach of the law. He added that Uber uses unlicensed drivers, does not provide benefits to its employees nor insurance for passengers, and must be regulated or face closure. 
Representatives of Uber in Guadalajara, which set up offices in the Providencia neighborhood in the summer of 2014, deny they are operating an unlicensed taxi service and say they act only as intermediaries.
Almaguer’s public statement seemed to have an immediate effect. A day after his comments, Secretaría de Movilidad officers secured four “executive taxis” outside the San Juan de Dios market in Guadalajara and took them to the pound.
Nonetheless, established Guadalajara taxi drivers are unhappy at the state government’s lukewarm efforts to go after Uber and “pirate taxis,” as they refer to them, since they themselves are now required to adhere to strict regulations about how they operate.
Using apps to order taxis is becoming the preferred method for young people. Guadalajara social media is abuzz with praise for the Uber cabs, which many users say are cheaper and cleaner, with more affable drivers.
Jaime Reyes Robles, secretary of Science, Innovation and Technology, agreed that Uber and other similar companies must be regulated in accordance with the law, but said his department is willing to work with established drivers to bring them up to speed on new technological developments that can help them compete in today’s world.
The Uber app can be downloaded free of charge at googleplay.com.