Uber Fights to Survive in Argentina

The authorities of Argentina's city of Bueno Aires are probing the American application based taxi service provider

Innovation is welcomed by wealth-creating economies and then there is Argentina’s city Buenos Aires, where Uber technologies said that it has continued to wait over four months to get a taxi-identification number. Currently, the cab service provider is under probe for setting up its ride-sharing business in an illegal manner. The difficulty of the transporters with the city government is a good news for taxi owners as well as union heads who are interested in keeping the organization out of the cab market.

But it’s a bad news for the city, a state hungering for job opportunities as well as the productivity to maintain higher standards of living. Republican Proposal Party’s Center-right President Mauricio Macri has pledged a financial revival. But if established interests win security from the tech revolution, he will probably fail to deliver. On 12^th April, the transporters lost patience and started offering its ride-hailing services in the city without a tax-identification number or a permit.

A cab union group immediately filed a litigation demanding the government to prohibit the transporters. The city responded by taking a legal action against the organization for the misdemeanor of “improper use of public space for profit.” Spokeswoman of Uber Niki Christoff stated on 15^th April police raided its lawyers’ offices “taking all Uber files and information they found.”Niki states: the upcoming day police broke the door lock of the house of the local general manager of the company, raiding the property and taking some documents and electronic equipment.

From 15^th April to 20^th April, the company provided rides free of charge in the city, expecting to counter the cab union and generate demand for its own facility  , which has launched protests and blocked roads to put city regulators under pressure. The transporter states it’s currently normally running its operations and thinks that its business is shielded in a constitutional manner. It lays emphasis upon that it’s neither a cab service nor a vehicle service and states Argentina requires a new regulatory authority for ride hailing platform operators.

The organization states its application has been downloaded by 250,000 devices in the state, while there were about 175,000 ride requests within the first seven days of operation and 120,000 passengers have set up accounts. The California based organization will also provide jobs. Ms Christoff has claimed that in Mexico City around 50% of its driving partners were earlier unemployed. In Argentina, she states there were 10,000 log –ups in the initial one and a half day of driver registration for launch of Uber in the Latin American region.