Prague, Sept 15 (CTK) – The Czech immigration police were settling a dispute between drivers for the Uber passenger transport company and drivers from taxi firms, 50 of whom gathered outside the Prague airport on Friday and put stickers on the arriving Uber cars to label their operation illegal.
Taxi drivers say the drivers working for Uber breach laws by driving customers without having a taxi-service licence, without having their cars registered as taxi, and without no speedometers in their cars.
At variance with law, many Uber cars have no luminous taxi top sign nor do they have the name of the operator written on them, the critics say.
Uber presents itself as a service alternative to taxis. Using a cell phone application, people can call an Uber driver to take them where needed.
The drivers work either for the Uber company or as self-employed drivers.
Uber says it does not offer taxi services but a shared drive on the principle of shared economy.
In the first half of the year, Uber transported 340 percent more clients in Prague than in the same period of 2016. It would not release the number of the clients.
Uber has been operating in the Czech Republic for three years. Apart from Prague, it was originally also present in the Moravian capital Brno, where, however, it has stopped operating due to legal complaints against it.
In Prague, too, Uber has been in dispute with the City Hall that accused its drivers of breach of law.
