“War” of taxi drivers with Uber in Rhodes

After local taxi drivers smashed competitors’ cars, Uber said there was a climate of terror reminiscent of that of “pirate Mykonos”.

“We will bear the consequences for vandalism,” Theodosius Castanidis, president of the Island Taxi Owners Association, “but we will not let them take our bread.”

Taxi drivers from the “island of the winds” went to war with the company Uber, which tried to “penetrate” the highly lucrative business of transporting passengers on the island of Rhodes.

The arrest of a local resident is so far the score in a bitter dispute that broke out in Rhodes on Thursday between taxi drivers and a transportation brokerage that works with Uber. According to a police statement, the man was identified in connection with his involvement in incidents involving damage and injury to a person associated with the company. The case against him includes crimes such as organizing a criminal association, disturbing the peace, threatening to commit a crime, dangerous bodily injury and damage to property.

“They can’t take the law into their own hands.”
“Taxi drivers smashed Uber cars and beat the drivers. Three people were injured and one had a broken leg,” a person familiar with incidents of violence and car vandalism, who wished to remain anonymous, told the media. According to local media, crowd of people – about 700 drivers – in protest moved to the headquarters of the company. Some of them entered the premises, causing several thousand euros worth of damage to at least 10 vehicles. The prosecutor’s intervention was immediate and the company filed a complaint.

The transportation brokerage that works with Uber reportedly began operations on Tuesday, and according to the same person, who asked reporters for his opinion anonymously, “Incidents began from the first moment, hooliganism on the street, when taxi drivers illegally stopped drivers to check their data.”

“Taxi drivers cannot take the law into their own hands,” sources close to the company told the media, which in a statement cites a climate of terrorism reminiscent of the practice “pirate island Mykonos”.

“Over the past 24 hours, numerous acts of threats, beatings, extortion and sabotage by an organized and controlled group have occurred on the island of Rhodes, destroying any perception of the rule of law and legitimate economic activity,” Uber said in a statement. “We will not tolerate illegal actions by third parties against the people and property of our company. We will not accept the atmosphere of terrorism that they are trying to impose with their actions, reminiscent of those that took place in March 2023 on the island of Mykonos.”

“We condemn this incident, but we will not allow bread to be taken away from us.”
“These were not some unknown, let’s be honest,” – tells the journalists of the publication cathimerini President of the Association of Taxi Owners of Rhodes Theodosius Kastanidis, commenting on the first reports that spoke of an “attack by unknown people.” He claims that there was no beating, only vandalism. “We will suffer the consequences,” he stresses. “We condemn this incident, but we will not let them take away our bread and butter“, – says Panagiotis Kontos, president of the Rhodes Association of Independent Taxi Drivers. “I can not talk more about what happened because the police are investigating, but we are vigilant,” he adds.

Kontos claims that after reviewing the mobile phone of a customer who used the company’s intermediary service from the airport, he found that the fee was less than the set rate of 36 euros, which represents unfair competition in the industry. “We are drivers who make a living, we wait for the summer to work for three months,” he says.

Taxi drivers from the “island of the winds” went to war with the company Uber, which tried to “stick” into the super-profitable business of transporting passengers on the island of Mykonos. pic.twitter.com/JwuCkCnDZk

— Athens News (@russianathens) May 2, 2023

“They act like predators,” complains Mr. Castanidis. “We were under the impression that they would come in and work fine with taxis. However, they set a minimum fare and ‘take away’ customers,” he says, arguing that all of the island’s transport professionals (tour buses, EIX minivans and rentals with drivers or without) oppose the work of this company. “The taxi drivers of Rhodes have been awarded for the quality of their services,” he adds.

“Legislatively, in 2018, the work of transport brokerage companies was prohibited, but even after the law was amended in 2019, not a single such company worked in Greece,” Themistoklis Amplas, president of the Federation of Transport Trade Unions of Greece, tells K. According to him, the company in Rhodes is the first in Greece to provide transport services like Uber, charging passengers at a lower cost.

“The federation opposes the existence of such brokerage companies, whose activities are contrary to what the state has established, as well as the interests of professional drivers who do not earn their living in any other way,” Amplas emphasizes, adding that passengers should “be on the lookout” because drivers in brokerage companies do not have a professional driver’s license and do not meet the requirements for which taxi drivers work.

As for doubts about the legality of its activities, in a published statement, the company refers to “false news.” “We categorically deny them and state the following: “Our company is legally licensed and fully complies with the institutional framework of its activities,” the document says.

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