ANKARA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- International ride-sharing service Uber faces hurdles in Turkey as regular taxi drivers launch protests and physically attack Uber drivers in the country.
Tensions have risen between taxi drivers and Uber drivers in recent weeks in Istanbul as tax drivers started a campaign against the transport company complaining that they are losing customers to Uber which eludes costly regulations and requirements for vehicles.
Uber, a transportation service providing a vehicle calling service through smart phone applications, has been operating in Istanbul since 2014 and currently has more nearly 5,000 drivers.
Recently a group of taxi drivers reportedly physically attacked Uber drivers even with the customers in the vehicles.
On March 7, local media reported a group of taxi drivers assaulted Uber drivers after calling them to quiet quarters of the city, pretending to be customers. On March 10, some unidentified individuals shot guns at an Uber vehicle in Istanbul.
On social media, Uber drivers complain that they are being threatened by taxi drivers and released video footages of the assaults.
Following the attacks at its vehicles, Uber released a statement: "Our priority is to stand alongside our Uber driver partners in these difficult times, providing them with the necessary legal help and support."
The United Taxi Drivers Association opened a lawsuit against Uber calling for its ban. There was a hearing last week in Istanbul just after the reported incidents of hostility against the app-based transport company.
The taxi drivers on March 12 held a demonstration against the transport company outside an Istanbul courthouse with protestors holding banners that read "Uber, get out of our country," "We don't want global thief Uber."
"We demand that Uber vehicles be taken out of service. These are labor thieves," Eyup Aksu, head of the Istanbul Taxi Drivers Tradesmen's Association, who organized the protests, said to the crowds.
"In European countries taxi drivers have burned things down during their protests (against Uber). We don't want to conduct such a protest here. But if parliament doesn't work on this issue and the justice system hands down a different ruling (not in favor of the taxi drivers), our patience will have run out. Taxi drivers will do anything necessary for their bread," he said.
"We trust the Turkish Parliament, our president and our prime minister. They always indicate that they stand by taxi drivers." Aksu said.
Regular taxi drivers argue that Uber takes advantages of legal holes and the ride-sharing company drivers do not have to buy a taxi license plate which costs almost a million Turkish liras (260,000 U.S. dollars) each.
A licensed taxi owner usually does not drive himself, but hires a driver with low wages. Uber acts only as an intermediary between drivers and customers and gets commission from each drive, so the ride-sharing drivers have higher income compared to regular ones.
Therefore, even some 1,500, out of the total 17,395 taxi drivers in Istanbul are working for Uber services.
Ismail Cevik K., an Uber driver, who served as a personal chauffeur for 20 years, told Xinhua that he has licenses as a touristic transporter and pays tax for his VIP services.
A report prepared by the Customs and Trade Ministry said legal regulation is needed on the application's use as there are "legal holes" about the operation of the ride-hailing services in Turkey.
The report stressed the necessity to "either completely block these companies or legitimize them within a framework of more stringent conditions."
Since the company is not based in Turkey and does not have an official bureau in the country, Turkish police hunts unlicensed taxis in operation and fine drivers and passengers.
Not only in Turkey, but all across the globe, taxi drivers stage protests against over complaint of unfair competition, already battling challenges in several states and has been forced to quit Denmark and Hungary, and lost its license in London.
"Unlike elsewhere in the world, Uber rides remain more expensive than taxi rides in Istanbul. The competition between the two is based on quality, not price. But yellow taxi drivers have never pointed to any realistic ways to compete in terms of service quality," Kanat Atkaya, daily Hurriyet commentator said.
He recalls complaints about taxi drivers "cheating, abusing, insulting and assaulting their customers."
The Turkish government plans to come together with representatives from Uber and taxi associations in order to ease tension between the two sides.
"We will prepare a detailed action plan in coordination with the Interior Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Transport Ministry," Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci was quoted by local media as saying.
