Guadalajara’s taxi drivers seem unwilling to give up the fight against the encroachment upon their industry of Uber, the transportation service which has been busy taking over the world since its 2009 founding in San Francisco, California.
Around 1,000 taxi drivers met at Plaza Nuevo Progreso on Tuesday to express their discontent, a good portion of which was reserved for what they see as the government’s negligence in regulating Uber and other non-taxi services.
“It’s unfair competition,” said Ramon Aviña, leader of Jalisco’s Auto-transportation Union. “[Taxi drivers] are in compliance with the law, with regulations, vehicle registration, training, while some random person thinks he can just buy a car and become a taxi driver. It’s not right and it’s not legal.”
According to Aviña, there are around 5,000 vehicles which are being used as taxis without meeting the requisite regulatory and training requirements in the state of Jalisco, against about 15,000 official taxi drivers.
The disgruntled drivers started their march at the aforementioned plaza, adjacent to a popular bull fighting ring, at 9 a.m. From there they walked north on Calzada Independencia, ending their protest at Avenida Vallarta.