{"id":76711,"date":"2015-01-06T15:03:03","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T13:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=76711"},"modified":"2015-01-06T15:04:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T13:04:42","slug":"cape-town-clamps-down-on-uber-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/76711\/cape-town-clamps-down-on-uber-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town clamps down on Uber: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 30 Uber vehicles have been impounded in Cape Town for not having the proper permits to operate, according to a Bloomberg report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Quoting City of Cape Town spokesperson Jean-Pierre Smith, the city had reportedly been receiving complaints about the Uber service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re public transport vehicles and they are required to have public transport operating permits,\u201d Smith told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Police seized at least 33 Uber-affiliated cars for not having valid permits on 3 January.<\/p>\n

In Cape Town, Uber vehicles operate as metred taxis, though the service does not technically follow that line.<\/p>\n

Uber drivers are independent operators who own their own vehicles or are part of an independent fleet which is in partnership with the Uber service.<\/p>\n

According to a report by Fin24<\/a>, Uber general manager for Johannesburg, Alon Lits, said the company has been in talks with the City of Cape Town for months regarding the permit issue.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of ambiguity around what the right type of category of operating licence should be for Uber partners (in Cape Town),” Lits said.<\/p>\n

“Regulation is really lagging innovation in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Johannesburg, drivers fall under the chartered-services operating license, which has far less onerous requirements.<\/p>\n

Drivers of the impounded cars reportedly face fines of R1,500 as well as a R7,500 vehicle release fee.<\/p>\n

Global problem<\/h3>\n

The troubles for Uber in South Africa are the latest in a string of issues faced by the company across the world for similar discrepancies.<\/p>\n

In places like Canada and Australia, the company faced pressure from authorities for not complying to its transport laws, while the service was outright banned in a number of cities.<\/p>\n

These include major cities in Belgium and Germany, as well as in France, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, South Korea, and several cities in the USA.<\/p>\n

The company has also faced massive backlash and protest from many localised taxi companies, which claim that the service, operating without permits, is effectively stealing business.<\/p>\n

In December the group raised an additional $1.2 billion in funding, giving it a valuation of approximately $40 billion.<\/p>\n

The service operates in over 250 cities in 50 countries.<\/p>\n

More on Uber<\/h3>\n

Uber eyes improved screening for drivers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Uber taxi and Kalahari.com launch \u2018UberSleigh\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eyes on Uber after alleged passenger rape<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Uber now worth $40 billion<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 30 Uber vehicles have been impounded in Cape Town for not having the proper permits to operate, according to a Bloomberg report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":43853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2279,26,6457],"class_list":["post-76711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-cape-town","tag-headline","tag-uber"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76711"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76721,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76711\/revisions\/76721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}