USA: Uber Applies For Patent To Identify Drunken Passengers

Popular taxi app Uber has applied for a patent to use artificial intelligence to determine how drunk a potential passenger may be.

According to the company’s application, made to the US patent office, the new technology would allow them to spot uncharacteristic user activity by monitoring customers’ activity as they use the Uber app.

These variables could include: walking speed, unusual spelling errors made while typing on the app, the angle at which a potential passenger holds the phone and whether the phone is moving in an abnormal way.

Thought the patent application does not explicitly refer to identifying drunk or otherwise inebriated passengers,it uses terms such as predicting user state using machine learning and uncharacteristic user states, vetting intoxicated passengers is the most likely application for a system built to spot typos or unusual swaying motions.

The patent application suggests various ways that Uber may tailor their service if a user is seen to be exhibiting uncharacteristic user activity.

For example, they may be directed to a well-lit pickup point, or they may be matched with a driver trained to deal with drunk passengers.

Uber also suggest that intoxicated passengers may be prevented from pooling with other app users.

Many critics have suggested that Uber’s new proposed system may allow drivers to exploit intoxicated passengers.

The company has seen several serious data breaches over the last few years, and in 2014 came under criticism for its use of the controversial God View software program.

The software allowed the company to monitor real-time locations of customers and drivers.

In 2016, the company’s former forensic investigator Samuel Ward Spangenberg concluded that the software was abused by employees who used it to track ex-partners and celebrities.

A recent investigation revealed that 103 Uber drivers have been accused of sexual assaulting or abuse in the US over the last four years.

Some have expressed concern that the patent may make certain passengers more vulnerable.

In a statement, Uber said: We are always exploring ways that our technology can help improve the Uber experience for riders and drivers. We file patent applications on many ideas, but not all of them actually become products or features.


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SINGAPORE: Grab Merges With Uber In Southeast Asia, Uber To Hold 27.5% Stake

In the most valuable deal of its kind in history, and what must surely be a blow to the America transport giant’s aspirations, Grab will integrate Uber’s ridesharing and food delivery business in Southeast Asia into Grab’s existing transportation and fintech platform.

The Grab app, already in 195 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries, will use this acquisition to drive towards becoming the #1 online-to-offline (O2O) mobile platform in Southeast Asia and a major player in food delivery.

Grab, used by over 5 million people daily, takes over Uber’s operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Grab, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board.

“We are humbled that a company born in SEA has built one of the largest platforms that provides income opportunities to over 5 million people”

Anthony Tan, group CEO and co-founder, Grab said, We are humbled that a company born in SEA has built one of the largest platforms that millions of consumers use daily and provides income opportunities to over 5 million people.

Today’s acquisition marks the beginning of a new era.

The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region. Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to outserve our customers.

Their trust in us as a transport brand allows us to look towards the next step as a company: improving people’s lives through food, payments and financial services.

Tan Hooi Ling, cofounder, Grab said, We will rapidly and efficiently expand GrabFood into all major SEA countries in the next quarter.

We’re going to create more value for our growing ecosystem of consumers, drivers, agents – and now merchants and delivery partners.

GrabFood will also be another great use case to drive the continued adoption of GrabPay mobile wallet and support our growing financial services platform.

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber added: This deal is a testament to Uber’s exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years.

It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet.

We’re excited to take this step with Anthony and his entire team at Grab, and look forward to Grab’s future in Southeast Asia.

Grab and Uber are working together to migrate Uber drivers and riders, Uber Eats customers, merchant partners and delivery partners to the Grab platform.

The Uber app will continue to operate for two weeks to ensure stability for Uber drivers, who can find out how to sign-up to drive with Grab online.

Uber Eats will run until the end of May, after which Uber delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.

Grab will rapidly expand its existing GrabFood businesses in Indonesia and Thailand to two more countries, Singapore and Malaysia, following the integration of the Uber Eats business.

GrabFood will be available across all major Southeast Asian countries in the first half of 2018.

The company will also grow its core transport offering to include more localised transport services and new mobility solutions.

Grab will also collaborate with governments and public transport operators to link public transport services, the recently announced GrabCycle marketplace for shared bicycles and the upcoming GrabShuttle Plus for on-demand bus routes.

Grab will continue to enhance its suite of offerings under Grab Financial, including mobile payments, micro-financing, insurance for millions of underserved and unbanked consumers, micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses in the region.

GrabPay as a mobile wallet will be available across most Southeast Asian countries by the end of the year.



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THAILAND: Woman Surrounded And Threatened By Taxi Drivers At Chiang Mai Airport, Suspected Of Being A Uber Driver

A woman was surrounded by a group of aggressive taxi drivers and verbally abused at Chiang Mai International Airport because they thought she was an Uber driver picking up a fare.

The woman, however, an importer of tea from England and a DJ for a Chiang Mai radio station, was picking up a foreign friend who was visiting the city.

Chiang Mai land transport officials' crackdown on Uber drivers came to light on Wednesday when a video clip of the incident was posted on a popular Facebook page.

The clip was viewed over 291,000 times in 22 hours and was shared 1,926 times and received over 45,000 reactions.

Many Chiang Mai Facebook users cried foul over the aggressive actions of the taxi drivers and the apparent sanction by officials.

The clip said the officials apologised to the woman after they determined she was not an Uber driver.

The woman identified was Aristhapat Puethai.

She said that she went to the airport on Tuesday to pick up a friend and when her friend got into the car, a group of taxi drivers surrounded her car and shouted and hit her car with their hands and took photos.

She said she was frightened and angry.

Earlier, a Chiang Mai woman who was at the airport to pick up a Chinese business client who had rented her condominium faced similar incident.

EGYPT: Taxi Drivers Complain Uber Drivers Have Unfair Advantage, They Do Not Pay Taxes Or fees.

Egyptian security forces fired tear gas Tuesday to disperse taxi drivers who had blocked a major road in the capital, Cairo, to protest Uber and other car-hailing applications, which the head of the Cairo traffic police insists are illegal.

The drivers stood in a roundabout on Gameat el-Dowal street after the canister was fired at them when they left their cars, witness Lamia el-Etriby and taxi drivers at the protest said.

They had blocked all but one lane, causing a major traffic jam as police vehicles arrived on the scene.

"We are not leaving until an official comes and gives us his word that all these apps will be shut down in Egypt," said Sherif Ali, a taxi driver and one of the protest organizers.

Taxi drivers have been protesting Uber's presence in the country in recent weeks. The application has very rapidly become popular in Cairo, a city of 20 million people with almost-constant traffic jams.

Taxi drivers have complained that Uber drivers have an unfair advantage because they do not have to pay the same kind of taxes or fees, nor follow the same licensing procedures. Now the Egyptian government appears to be agreeing, and launching a crackdown on the service.

Maj. Gen. Alaa el-Degwy, the head of Cairo's traffic police insists Uber and a similar app named Careem are Illegal as taxis require different processes and rules.

He said police in Cairo have begun clamping down on Uber drivers at checkpoints, and those who are caught must pay a fine.

The police also cancel the driver's license, take the car license, and refer the driver to public prosecutors, he said.

In addition to paying specified taxes, drivers must carry a special license and be registered as a taxi, said el-Degwy, who added that officers have even brought disgruntled taxi drivers along to demonstrate the crackdown in action.

Egyptian clients say they prefer the dependability of the app, complaining that normal taxi drivers often tamper with their meters or pretend the meter is broken in order to overcharge them.

They also appreciate the safety provided by the app, especially for female passengers at night who fear being sexually harassed by drivers in a country where sexual harassment is endemic.

Uber says it trains all drivers who enroll with the service, with particular emphasis on eliminating sexual harassment.

"As a victim of multiple sexual harassment incidents in cabs and by other drivers, Uber really made my life as a woman safer and easier in Cairo," said 31-year-old Radwa Al Rifai, adding that she is "shocked" at the government's measures "to take away from us the one safe means of transportation."

David Plouffe, Uber's chief adviser and a member of the board of directors, is currently visiting Cairo.

He said that the service has boomed in Egypt as both passengers and drivers embrace it. As many as 10,000 drivers have enrolled with Uber, including 600 who started on Monday alone, he said.

"They are taking some of our livelihood and splitting it with us," said taxi driver and protester Yasser el-Sharqawi. "We get fewer clients and when we get them they tell us, 'We will be using Uber and Careem instead.'"

In addition to the police crackdown, Uber drivers have faced vigilante violence from taxi drivers. In some instances, Uber drivers have responded to an order and found an angry mob of taxi drivers waiting to drag them to a police station.

Uber Egypt General Manager Anthony el-Khoury said that he and Plouffe, the visiting board member, plan to meet with government officials this week to find solutions to this standoff and ways to coexist.

"There is still discussion that will happen between us and the government to see if they feel comfortable with these types of regulations, or we can work toward stronger regulations so that we can coexist in a more transparent way," said el-Khoury. "I think there's a misconception that this is a zero sum game."

El-Khoury said that Uber has brought some "healthy competition" that might be pushing taxi drivers to address their customer-service issues. Protest organizer Ali said that drivers have begun organizing training courses against sexual harassment and thinking about ways to improve their services.

El-Khoury said that Uber drivers do pay Egyptian taxes through an indirect route. The company only hires drivers who are licensed through private limousine or car rental companies, which do pay their own corporate taxes, he said.

"This is a circumvention of the law," said el-Degwy, of the Cairo traffic police. "You cannot have a citizen riding in a car with someone he knows nothing about."

THAILAND: Uber Drivers Conflicts With Traditional Taxi Driver

Conflicts between Uber drivers and traditional public-transport drivers continue as two more cases were recently reported in Chon Buri’s Pattaya City.

In the first case, a video clip on social media showed an Uber driver picking up a passenger near the Sanctuary of Truth attraction in Soi Na Klua 12. The driver allegedly threatened to shoot the Uber driver if he returned to the area.

In a second case, 20 Pattaya taxis chased after a Thai woman who picked up a foreigner in front of Central Marina mall. They wanted to confront her as they thought she was an Uber driver. However, she was a real-estate agent who was picking up a Chinese national to view a Pattaya condominium.

Muang Pattaya superintendent Pol Colonel Apichai Krobphetch said on Thursday that the taxi drivers could be punished for illegal detention if the plaintiff pressed charges, so people should be calm and alert police about Uber drivers instead.

A meeting will be held of agencies and business operators on Friday to find a solution to the issue, he said.

Thailand's transport authorities have begun a crackdown on drivers for ride-hailing services Uber and Grab and want the military government to ban them, a transport official said.

U.S.-based Uber has faced regulatory hurdles around the world and when it began operating in Thailand in 2014 the Department of Land Transport said its drivers were not properly registered or insured and its payment system did not meet regulations.

But authorities have previously done little to stop Uber or other ride-hailing services as they have grown in popularity among Thais and foreign visitors in the major tourist center.

Authorities had already fined 23 Uber drivers in Bangkok this week compared to only 83 others since Uber began operations, said Sugree Carupom, an official at the department, adding that Grab drivers too have been fined, though not as many.

Drivers who are caught will now also have licenses suspended for up to six months and be fined 2,000 baht ($57).

We're using stricter measures," Sugree said. The services are worrying because it is hard for the government to regulate.

The department's deputy director-general Nanthapong Cherdchu said it would ask the junta to use an emergency measure to shut down the app if need be because it was disrupting the traditional public transport system and encouraging Thais to break the law.

Uber, which has a website in Thai for drivers to sign up, said it would work with authorities to make clear the benefits of ride-sharing in the country.

Uber remains committed to creating reliable transportation for everyone,Uber spokeswoman Amy Kunrojpanya said in a statement.

Grab's representative was not immediately available for comment.

Ride booking services such as Uber and Grab's GrabCar have won popularity in the nation of 67 million for often being cheaper and less likely to refuse to take passengers to their destinations than regular taxis, but they have irked traditional taxi drivers.

Uber and GrabCar are being targeted by the authorities because they are the only two popular services in Thailand which private car owners can use to pick up passengers.

Taxi drivers in the tourist town of Chiang Mai were carrying out their own sting operations to turn Uber and GrabCar drivers in to authorities, said Chanchai Kilapaeng, the head of the local transport office.

But regular Uber client Putti Orungrochkul, a 24-year-old tech entrepreneur in Thai capital Bangkok, said banning Uber goes against Thailand's stated vision of becoming an innovative and digitally-driven society.

If the government really cares about the people, they will find a middle ground

SOUTH AFRICA: Uber Introduces Real-time ID

The feature, which verifies registered drivers, comes in the wake of reports of some users being attacked, kidnapped and raped by bogus Uber drivers.

Uber has debuted its biometric safety technology in South Africa called Real-time ID.

If proven successful it will be rolled-out to the rest of the continent.

The feature, which verifies registered drivers, comes in the wake of reports of some users being attacked, kidnapped and raped by bogus Uber drivers.

General Manager for Uber Sub-Saharan Africa Alon Lits says they are always looking at enhancing safety.

“We have introduced real-time identity check, which means at random intervals when drivers log on to the application they will be prompted to take a selfie while they use their phone.

This picture that they take will be validated against the picture that we have on file.

KENYA: UBER Management Blamed For Incompetence, Arrogance And Ignorance,

More and more comments emerging from Kenya are now blaming the local UBER management of incompetence, arrogance and ignorance, besides making inflammatory demands, instead of honestly engaging with their drivers.

As a result, though fares were raised a few days ago, has the unrest among UBER drivers continued.

The drivers want nothing to do with moving the legal foundation of their agreements out of Kenyan jurisdiction, have claimed that they were again shortchanged by the company over promised fare increases and continue to take increasing issue with the 25 percent commission UBER is taking, used to feed the fatcats in their local and international offices.

UBER's global top management too is in tatters as reported here before and with massive losses on the books the question must be asked how the company can survive such an onslaught in the public domain, not just in the US and other key markets but closer to home in Kenya too.

Striking drivers are also reported to have resorted to foul play against their colleagues not participating in the strike and investigations have been started in reported cases which were narrated on social media from Kenya yesterday.

Thankfully have Kenyans now a number of alternatives to choose from, in part from companies with lower fares, giving the clientele the final say which of the app based cab companies will survive and which may have to pack it in.

BRAZIL: UBER Has More Than 50,000 Drivers In Brazil

After ceding to the competition in China earlier this year, ride-hailing company Uber is shifting focus to Brazil, Latin America’s most populous nation.

Introduced in Brazil just over two years ago, use of the app has increased so quickly here that the South American giant now represents Uber’s third largest business worldwide, after the United States and India.

The rocketing growth, however, is also a race against time: Local governments are moving toward regulating and taxing the company in ways that may hurt its competitive advantage while taxi unions are pushing to ban it entirely.

“There are many issues with Uber now because it has become a big business in Brazil,” said Fabro Steibel, executive director of the Institute of Science and Technology, a Rio-based think tank. “It is too early to know if Uber will be a major problem or a major solution” to the country’s transportation needs.

The US-based company is operating in 37 Brazilian cities, including Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brasilia and economic powerhouse Sao Paulo. The company boasts 8 million “active users” and more than 50,000 Uber drivers in Brazil. It has benefited from a confluence of factors.

Brazil’s economy is mired in its worst recession in decades, with many riders looking to save money and a ready supply of potential drivers who are otherwise unemployed or underemployed.

A strong car culture in Brazil, similar to the US, combined with relatively good roads has allowed for growth that would be impossible in other, poorer Latin American countries.

In contrast to the situation in China, where Uber China had a drag-out fight with rival Didi Chuxing before being acquired by Didi in August, in Brazil Uber has no significant competition.

And while Brazil is known for a byzantine government bureaucracy and high taxes, such regulation has yet to catch up with the sharing economy.

Slowly, however, that is changing, which could make it harder for Uber to continue offering steeply reduced rates to capture market share. Taxi unions nationwide are pushing a bill before Congress that would ban the company. Thousands of drivers from around the country gathered for a protest in Brasilia last month.

In Rio, Mayor Eduardo Paes signed legislation last month to prohibit the use of private vehicles for paid rides, essentially banning the use of ride-hailing apps. Earlier this year, however, a Rio judge ruled that private drivers would have the right to continue operating until the activity was regulated at the federal level. Appeals are in process.

In Sao Paulo, where Uber pays a few cents per kilometer into a municipal fund, the city government is set next month to roll out a series of regulations, including surprise inspections of accounts of ride-sharing companies.

Taxi drivers argue that Uber drivers have an advantage because they do not face the same bureaucratic hoops, including several inspections each year, a litany of taxes and keeping comprehensive insurance.

“It is hard to even have hope,” said Fabio Freitas, a 37-year-old taxi driver in Rio who used to make $84 per day but now makes half of that. “Uber is destroying our profession.”

Freitas says he is looking into factory work, as he can go hours without picking up a passenger.

Uber declined to provide revenue numbers in Brazil. But the company says accusations that it is unregulated or unfairly competing are wrong.

“Uber pays taxes in every single place where it operates. We are legal,” said Gui Telles, Uber Brazil general manager.

Its drivers must have a valid driver’s license with a special annotation allowing them to drive professionally. They must also get a background check, register their vehicle and carry insurance. All cars must have four doors and air conditioning.

Telles said that Uber’s rating system allowed the company to weed out any bad drivers. He said the company was working to ease traffic jams in big cities by offering a pool service, and said the platform was helping thousands of drivers support their families.

How much of a living driving for Uber can provide, however, is debatable. The company takes 20 to 25 percent off the top of each ride, already sharply discounted fares compared to taxis.

For riders, the biggest draw is clearly cheaper prices. Many customers are even finding ways to take Uber from places that only taxis can legally go, like bus stations and airports.

Uber Says Its Drivers Are Independent Contractors With Self-employed "freedom."

Switzerland has joined the chorus of disapproval against Uber's insistence that it's huge glove of drivers aren't employees—with the country's insurance agency saying that it must pay staff benefits to a man who challenged his employment status with the tap and ride firm.

The man is restricted from setting his own prices and payment terms in the Uber car he drives and faces consequences he if breaks the company's rules, found the Swiss accident insurance agency SUVA.

It comes not long after a similar UK ruling went against Uber during a tribunal hearing last October. The judgment said that Uber's 40,000 drivers in Britain are entitled to earn the national minimum wage, holiday pay, sick pay, and other benefits, after it heard from two individuals who had taken action against the company.

At the time, California-based Uber said it would appeal against the decision and told its drivers that it was—in effect—business as usual. "There will be no change to your partnership with Uber in light of this decision," it told them in an e-mail following the ruling, "and we will continue to support the overwhelming majority of drivers who tell us that they use the Uber app to be their own boss and choose when and where to drive."

In response to the latest ruling, Uber once again disputed the idea that its drivers should be treated as employees.

"Taxi dispatchers have had exactly this issue for years and yet today there is not one driver employed by a big dispatcher in cities such as Zurich or Geneva. So this is nothing new in Switzerland and we will challenge it, just as others have," said Uber general manager Rasoul Jalali.

He added: "Drivers using the Uber app are independent contractors who enjoy all the flexibility and freedom that come with being self-employed."

Uber has repeatedly faced questions around the globe about the "contractor" status that it pins on its army of drivers.

USA: U.S. Federal Judge Rejects Uber $10M Settlement

A federal judge has rejected a legal settlement that would have divided up to $100 million among about 380,000 Uber drivers to resolve claims the ride-hailing service has been exploiting them by treating them as independent contractors instead of employees.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen declared the deal unfair in a decision issued late Thursday, complicating Uber's efforts to remove the legal threat of having its drivers classified as employees.

That distinction would give Uber's drivers more rights and benefits. That would in turn force the San Francisco company to change its business in ways that would cause its expenses to soar and potentially undercut its plans to eventually sell its stock in an initial public offering.

Uber expressed its disappointment with Chen's ruling in a statement that said the company will consider its options. The alternatives include taking the case to trial, awaiting rulings in two appeals that would bolster Uber's cause, or negotiating a revised settlement with the drivers in an attempt to appease Chen.

In another case earlier this year, Uber rival Lyft initially had a similar settlement with its drivers rejected by a different judge. Lyft raised its initial offer from $12.5 million to $27 million, good enough to win preliminary approval from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in June.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lead attorney representing the Uber drivers, said she thinks a revised settlement is possible in this lawsuit, too. If not, she is prepared to take the case to trial, she told The Associated Press in an email. In that event, the case could be whittled to about 8,000 drivers because of binding arbitration clauses that Uber holds.

"I am disappointed the judge did not approve the settlement, but I understand and I have heard him," Liss-Riordan wrote.

The agreement would have required Uber to pay at least $84 million to drivers in California and Massachusetts who had been picking up riders who requested them through the company's service dating back to August 2009. Uber would have paid another $16 million to the drivers if the company's market value increased by 1.5 times within the first year of its IPO.

If everyone covered in the lawsuit had filed for payments, the California drivers would have received an average of $10 to $1,950 apiece and the Massachusetts drivers would have received an average of $12 to $979.

Uber is currently a privately held company backed by venture capitalists and other investors who have valued the business at more than $60 billion, though some analysts question the reliability of that figure.

Chen also is skeptical of Uber's prospects in an IPO, saying in his decision that he based his conclusions that the company would only end up paying the drivers a minimum of $84 million.

Most of the money would be designated to settle claims that Uber had been cheating them by refusing to reimburse them for mileage and phone usage while also refusing to pay them for overtime and prohibiting passengers from tipping them. Had the case gone to trial and the drivers prevailed on them, they might have won estimated $854 million, based on estimates from the drivers' attorneys.

Given the risks facing the drivers had they not won those specific claims in a trial, Chen concluded the $84 million would have been a "fair and adequate" amount.

But Chen was troubled that the settlement also would have prevented the drivers from pursuing claims on a variety of other employment issues that could have generated another $1 billion in a trial verdict favouring their arguments. Lumping in those potential liabilities, the proposed settlement would be paying the drivers less than five per cent of what they could win in a trial — a sum that Chen concluded "is not fair, adequate or reasonable."

SOUTH AFRICA: Uber, Metered Taxis Clash Near King Shaka International Airport

An argument broke out between an Uber and metered taxi driver, resulting in one of them pointing a firearm at the other, near King Shaka International Airport, police said on Thursday.

The two became involved in an argument at a Sasol petrol station, Major Thulani Zwane said.

“It is alleged that one driver pointed a firearm at another, but there was no shooting.”

A case was yet to be opened. Management at the petrol station declined to comment.

KwaZulu-Natal Metered Taxi Association spokesperson Sizwe Imvubu said they were investigating the matter.

“At this stage we are not sure of the circumstances or who did what. Once we get a full report from the local metered taxi chairperson we will comment on the matter.”

Other clashes

Tensions between metered taxi and Uber drivers have been simmering since the internet-based ride-sharing app was introduced in South Africa in 2013.

Last year, metered taxi drivers intimidated Uber drivers and passengers outside Gautrain stations in Sandton and Centurion, in Gauteng, and staged illegal protest against Uber over the service’s alleged “unfair competition”.

Last month, three metro police officials were injured when metered taxi drivers stoned two Uber cars and two metro police cars in Sandton.

Metered taxi drivers chased and tried to assault Gauteng Transport MEC Ismail Vadi at his office when he announced the start of the process of issuing operating licences to Uber drivers.

KENYA: Uber Drivers To Qualify For Loans

Uber drivers in Kenya have an additional incentive to go the extra mile: a local bank is offering them car loans based on how clients rate their service.

Sidian Bank, a closely held Kenyan lender, has set aside 10 billion shillings (R1.55bn) for loans to taxi drivers buying cars to work for the ride-hailing service, CEO Titus Karanja told reporters in the capital, Nairobi. The initiative will expand credit in a country where only 34% of people use credit, according to Kenyan central bank data.

The main requirements to qualify for a Sidian loan are a minimum of 500 trips and an Uber passenger rating of at least 4.6 out five points based on measures that include the driver’s timeliness and attitude.

“The finance and leasing options are focused more on the applicant’s proven Uber experience than on his or her credit history,” Karanja said Wednesday. “We expect speedy uptake of this financing package, with the entrenchment of Uber’s services in Kenya.”

Uber, which has 1 000 drivers in Kenya, plans to add another 10 000 over three years. Rides with Uber drivers hit one million after 15 months of operations in East Africa’s biggest economy and the company is seeing increased demand for its service in other urban areas of the country, acting general manager for Kenya Nate Anderson said. The rides are currently available in Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa.

The success of the business has irked traditional taxi operators in Kenya who have attacked Uber drivers and set fire to at least two cars demanding the app-based service be shut citing unfair competition. That violence only worked to make the service more popular, Anderson said. More than half of the company’s partners now are former traditional cab operators.

“What happened in January, February sparked a conversation,” Anderson said. “We did see accelerated growth during that time and were able to create even more economic opportunities.”

Sidian, majority owned by Centum Investment, Kenya’s biggest publicly traded investment firm, is asking for zero down payment for high-scoring drivers and will charge a 10.5% interest rate for the debt. In comparison, banks charged an average 18% for loans in February, according to central bank data.

Drivers with no previous Uber track record will have to raise at least a tenth of the required amount and will be rated using the more formal credit history.

Sidian expects the cab-buying product could nearly double its 12.5 billion-shilling loan book. Drivers can borrow as much as 1.5 million shillings and pay it back within three years.

Kenya is accustomed to experimenting with innovate banking ideas. Vodafone’s Kenyan unit offers a service that enables mobile phone users to transfer money and pay bills using a product known as M-Pesa.

The platform had transactions worth more than $50bn in the year through March - equivalent to about 85% of the country’s economic output.

EGYPT: Taxi Drivers Press Demands To Shut Down Uber And Careem

Two taxi drivers display banner: "The Egyptian Taxi is the basis" to protest against foreign ride hailing applications Uber, Careem in Downtown Cairo on February 10, 2015.

A lawsuit is expected to be filed soon by Egypt’s rights lawyer Khaled Ali, who will be representing taxi drivers against the increasingly popular companies.

Cairo’s taxi drivers on Wednesday repeated their demands to the Egyptian government to immediately ban taxi service operators Uber and Careem.
In a press conference hosted by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights at the Egyptian press syndicate, taxi representatives said that foreign companies are creating “strife between Egyptian drivers and riders.”

They also called on Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to interfere to ban the services.

An initiative under the name “We’re the real taxi, not the outsiders” was launched at the press conference, with taxi drivers behind the action hopeful that Wednesday’s press conference would be the beginning of a successful campaign.

Mahmoud Abo-Ali, one of the taxi drivers speaking on stage, said that the San Franicso-based Uber and Dubai-based Careem were operating in Egypt to “steal our bread.”

Many taxi-riders have argued that people “would not have resorted to private taxi services like Uber and Careem if the normal taxis services were actually satisfactory.”

However, many taxi drivers believe that there is an organised campaign by the media and private driver companies to defame them.

“There is an organised campaign against us on social media to portray us as horrible drivers who are sexual harassers with rigid taximeters,” Sherif El-Sayed, one of the taxi drivers speaking at the press syndicate said.

Taxi drivers chanted against the private companies, saying that they were “American infiltrators.”

“We can’t stand this, we can’t stand this, you have robbed us,” taxi drivers chanted.

Another taxi driver, Walid Mohamed Sayed, told Ahram Online that he does not refute the fact that there are problematic issues with the behaviour of some taxi drivers.

Indeed, many taxi riders have been calling on taxi drivers through social media outlets to “stop ripping off Egyptians through [rigged] taximeters.”

However, Sayed added that he believes that the taxi drivers syndicate and the interior ministry should be the only parties that handle problems between drivers and passengers.

“Uber and Careem are both companies that came to Egypt to fool the state and the local taxi drivers… They don’t pay the right taxes, and they’re using the gasoline of the country," Sayed said.

Taxi drivers also argue that they have to pay thousands of Egyptian pounds to obtain a taxi license.

Uber Cairo’s Operation Manager Abdellatif Waked said they are not against taxi drivers and that they understand the fact that they might be upset about some aspects of their operations.

“Cairo has about 20 million people, the market is large, so it is possible that it can accommodate taxi drivers, Uber, and other competitors,” Waked said.

Waked also argued that they’re trying to encourage taxi drivers to join the “Uber platform,” adding that the service is open for negotiations and discussions with taxi drivers to include them in the system.

“There are many taxi drivers who have actually joined us as Uber drivers,” Waked elaborated, saying that "the door is always open for more to work with us."

Waked said Uber is licensed as a technology company in all the countries it operates in, stressing that they pay taxes and carry commercial registers.

Waked also added that the company’s partners – limousine and tourism companies – actually act as offices for anyone who wants to join Uber as a driver, saying these outlets are licensed and have their own commercial registers.

Dubai based Careem also insists it is operating legally in Egypt.

Careem’s General Manager Hadeer Shalaby said they have provided thousands of work opportunities every month to unemployed Egyptians, arguing that their service is not only important for customers, but for their drivers or “captains,” as they prefer to call them.

A lawsuit is expected to be filed soon by Egypt’s rights lawyer Khaled Ali, who will be representing taxi drivers against the foreign companies.

This is the first time since the applications’ launch in the Middle East that the private services have faced a lawsuit from taxi drivers.

In France, two Uber executives are set to face criminal charges on Thursday for the “illegal storage of personal information and the operation of a service that puts passengers in touch with car-service drivers that have no professional licenses.”

The trial comes following a series of protests by taxi drivers in France. The latest outcry by French taxi drivers against Uber came on Tuesday when drivers partially blocked roads on the edge of Paris and other areas to protest against what they say is unfair competition from such companies.

SOUTH AFRICA: Uber Wants SA’s Transport Laws Changed

Internet ride-sharing service Uber wants government to formally introduce a category that would cater to transporters who use technology.

On Tuesday, Uber headed to parliament to present its case to the portfolio committee on transport.

Uber briefed the committee on the internet ride-sharing service’s background, business model and the challenges it has faced in South Africa.

“Part of what we’re trying to push for is an amendment to that National Land and Transport Act to introduce a new standalone category,” Uber’s head of sub-Saharan Africa, Alon Lits, said.

Lits explained that Uber, which uses e-hailing technology, doesn’t fit neatly into current categories such as metered taxi or chartered service licences.

Uber therefore wants the National Land and Transport Act to include a category called ‘transport network operator’.

“A transport network operator can be someone who is using technology as lead generation,” Lits said.

Lits explained that a transport network operator licence could also be applied for by other companies and drivers that use technology in the transport space.

Local regulation

Uber’s appearance in parliament this week came after the service has been in the spotlight in South Africa this year.

In June, Uber’s Lits said Cape Town traffic officials have impounded over 200 Uber cars this year because drivers for the internet service did not meet metered taxi permit regulations.

However, the Western Cape government granted over 100 metered taxi licences to Uber drivers in July.

The City of Cape Town said it further plans to introduce an e-hailing bylaw to cater for the likes of Uber, but Lits said that this would be a “short-term solution” because e-hailing is a sub-category of metered taxi regulations.

Gauteng MEC for Transport Ismail Vadi also said in July that Uber must comply with metered taxi requirements in cities such as Johannesburg and Pretoria.

This call came after alleged intimidation from metered taxi drivers towards Uber partners.

Lits said that Uber planned to have more discussions with the province in the light of Vadi’s recent comments.

But the province has yet to provide clarity on what could happen to Uber drivers who previously applied for charter service licences, Lits said.

New Uber drivers in Gauteng, though, are also applying for both charter and metered licences.

“There are some that are applying for charter services and others that are applying for metered taxis,” Lits said.

Cape Town and Johannesburg are not the only cities in the world where Uber has come under pressure from regulators and rival taxi firms.

In South Korea’s Seoul, officials have said the internet ride-sharing service is illegal, while metered taxi drivers in Paris took to burning cars earlier this year to express their anger at Uber.

USA: Lawsuit By Uber Drivers To Recover Tips

Uber drivers have filed a class action lawsuit claiming they have been misclassified as independent contractors and are entitled to be reimbursed for their expenses that Uber should have to pay, like for gas and vehicle maintenance. The lawsuit also challenges Uber’s practice of telling passengers that the gratuity is included and not to tip the drivers, even though you are not getting a tip!!

We won a major victory on March 11, 2015, when the judge overseeing the case, Judge Edward M. Chen, of the federal district court in San Francisco, denied Uber’s motion for summary judgment! In his decision, the judge agreed with many of our arguments about why Uber drivers may be properly classified as employees. Click here to read the court’s summary judgment decision. Under the court’s order, the case will go to trial before a jury. See the news stories below for reports on the ruling.

We won another important victory on September 2, 2015, when the court certified the case as a class action. Under this decision, the case will now include all drivers who have contracted with Uber directly and in their own name (not through intermediate companies) in California since 2009 -- but not current drivers or any drivers who have driven since June 2014 (unless you opted out of Uber’s arbitration clause).

SO IF YOU HAVE DRIVEN FOR UBER SINCE JUNE 2014 – OR IF YOU HAVE DRIVEN FOR UBER AT ANY TIME IN CALIFORNIA THROUGH A CORPORATE NAME OR AN INTERMEDIATE COMPANY (LIKE A LIMOUSINE COMPANY) – and you want to be part of this case, you will need to CONTACT OUR FIRM and sign up to bring your claim individually. Nearly two thousand Uber drivers from around the country have already contacted us to join our list.

We filed this case on behalf of Uber drivers across the country. In an early ruling, the court agreed with us that the case could proceed on behalf of drivers nationwide. In a later ruling, however, the judge changed his mind and limited the case to drivers in California. We think this decision was incorrect and we plan to appeal it. But meanwhile, if you have driven for Uber anywhere in the United States, and did not opt out of the arbitration clause within 30 days of accepting Uber’s licensing agreement, PLEASE CONTACT US to obtain a form to return to us so that we can pursue an individual claim for you, in the event that we have to pursue these claims individually, rather than through the class action.

In a recent decision, the California Labor Commissioner ruled that an Uber driver was indeed an employee, not an independent contractor, and ordered Uber to reimburse the driver for her expenses. However, Uber has appealed the decision, which will be reviewed de novo in court, and so the driver who won the case has not yet received reimbursement and will have to await the outcome of court proceedings. The remedy ordered by the California Labor Commissioner is the same remedy we are seeking for all Uber drivers in the class action lawsuit. This decision was a great result and may be helpful to our lawsuit.

In addition to the decision by the California Labor Commissioner, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board has ruled that an Uber driver is an employees eligible to obtain unemployment benefits. A similar unemployment decision is under consideration now in Florida as well.

If you have any questions, feel free to call or email Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lead attorney representing the Uber drivers, or her paralegal assistant, Elizabeth Lopez, at (617) 994-5800 or elopez@llrlaw.com, or sliss@llrlaw.com

Attorney Liss-Riordan and her firm have represented thousands of tipped employees, and employees who have been misclassified as independent contractors, all around the country. See her firm’s website for more information: www.llrlaw.com.