Slovak court orders Uber to suspend services nationally - Sensationalist Headlines

Oh boy another country where Uber is not allowed to operate... A Slovak court has ordered Uber to suspend its operations in the country, responding to an action by taxi drivers who say the ride-hailing service represents unfair competition. The decision came into effect on March 6, but it was announced only on Tuesday and Uber services were still available in the Slovak capital Bratislava, according to Reuters. “The defendant is obliged to refrain from allowing people who do not meet legal requirements… to carry out taxi services in Slovakia,” court spokesman Pavol Adamciak said on Tuesday. The association of certified taxi drivers filed the lawsuit in January. It argued that Uber drivers do not meet the requirements for professional taxi drivers, and the cars do not meet the safety and regulatory requirements for professional transport services. Uber has faced regulatory and legal setbacks around the world amid opposition from traditional taxi services. I'm pretty pissed off about this. The taxi experience here is god awful. Calling dispatch is retarded and it will 90% result in no cab wanting to go to place where I live because it's in a bumfuck nowhere and if I try to use the Hopin app, I always have to surcharge by at least 2 or 3 additional Eur. With Uber I always got a "cab" on first try without additional surcharges and the fare was always 50% or more less than regular taxi fare. The taxis here are basically trying to fuck you over. In Slovakia, taxis have to fulfill strict criteria, drivers are obliged to have licenses, to be self-employed, their cars must be marked, have taximeters, as well as cash registers. Basically, outdated as shit legislative preventing services like Lyft or Uber to be operational in this god forsaken country. The Civil Association of licensed Taxi drivers posted the ruling on facebook and keeps fighting people in the comments that disagree with the ruling, going so far as to threaten people with lawsuits for public defamation. They also have the Taxify, Uber alternative service, in their sights next. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/209432/88200808-df88-4cb3-8b20-747ee1628cf5/image.png "From the perspective of a third person, I would change your comment. It contains the legal name of a taxi service and can result in a crime of defamation and damage of a good name. It's on you what you do, I just only noticed your comment." This is the email that Uber customers in Slovakia received: http://i.heykidwannayiff.com/OUTLOOK_2018-03-27_22-13-50.png

Rulings like these make me hope that Uber continues in Chile. There are occasional protests by taxi drivers, but it's just so awful riding with them. They sexually harass you regardless of what you look like just as long as you have breasts and a vagina, they purposefully take longer routes to charge you more, if not that then sometimes they install tampers for their meter so they can charge you more, and on top of that many of the cars are filthy. With Uber the biggest problem I've had was a driver cancelling the ride, but the fine I received was quickly waived by support.

The Taxi lobby is stronger then what might seem. Instead of adapting their services and checking their employees, the taxi service stays stuck in the same place, being inferior to it's competitors in most cases. Yet, they will not improve to solve their problems so that people will use their services again, they will blame any competitor and go straight to the state to obliterate them into oblivion.

On the other hand most countries have fairly strict legislation about taxi services and what's required etc. so it's completely understandable that taxi drivers don't like people doing essentially the same thing as they do except without having to follow the regulations.

In that case, maybe the legislation could be looked at. Cooperation or a sensible dialogue would be a first step to solving this issue, but even that looks to be a problem in many countries.

Seems like the taxi mafia is going strong still.