UBER continues the war with the taxi companies and raises the alarm about the proposed changes to the alternative transport law, simulating in its application in Romania how the journeys that Romanians will take would be affected, the company's announcement is available below.
To sound the alarm on the negative effect of the proposed changes to the alternative transport law, on March 18 Uber launched Uber Melc. It existed as a temporary product in the app, simulating how it would work if the proposals were implemented. Passengers in Bucharest who selected the Uber Melc option noticed longer waiting times, but also much higher prices for their trips. This could be the reality, with 90% fewer drivers and high costs for users.
According to data provided by the company, hundreds of thousands of users opened the app early last week to see the welcome message informing them of possible changes to the alternative transportation law. The only products available on March 18 and 19 were the basic UberX option, along with Uber Melc, the service which simulated long wait times but also expensive rides due to a lack of vehicles available for curious passengers to try it out.
Ana-Maria Borlovan, Head of Driver Operations at Uber, for Central and Eastern Europe says: “3 million users will lose access to a service that has become part of their everyday lives. They use Uber to get to work, to solve the problem of lack of parking spaces, to send their children to school with their grandparents or simply to go out. We have been serving Romania for almost a decade and our service has constantly developed because we are making efforts to improve it. We want it to be more available, more accessible and friendlier to the cities in which we operate. Recently, we also launched UberX Share, a product designed to put more people in fewer cars, to combat the congested traffic in Bucharest".
The company warns that Uber Melc may become the only alternative transport option if the restrictive proposals to the ridesharing law are implemented. Restricting access to this service will have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of drivers who use the application as a source of income and will remove an essential service for millions of Romanians.
