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Uber executive says European taxis joining platform

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) — Uber is seeing an influx of European taxi drivers joining its platform, an executive told Reuters, a surprising development given the history of tensions between the company and the traditional taxi industry.

In an interview, Uber’s Anabel Diaz, who oversees the company’s mobility (ride-sharing) business in EMEA, said business is strong in Europe despite lingering uncertainty about gig economy labour rules.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa “are growing fairly nicely with numbers that go from 10% to more than 50% growth in some of our geographies,” she said.

Uber’s biggest European markets are Britain, France, Germany and Spain.

These have “very solid business performance with a lot of innovation, including development of our taxi solution in all of those countries,” she said.

Uber says European taxi drivers’ usage of the app has doubled in the year ended April 30, from 5% to 10% of all rides. Taxi drivers who use the app consider it a supplement to their curb-side hailing business. All Uber trips must be booked online.

Conflict between taxis and Uber has lessened due to rules requiring private Uber drivers to have a commercial license.

Business

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2023-05-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281994676869651

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