Taxi drivers are to stage another protest in Dublin on Wednesday evening in their continuing campaign against a fixed-fare option introduced by booking platform Uber.
Drivers will gather at Connyngham Road, close to the Phoenix Park, and UCD at 4.30pm before proceeding to Merrion Square. Separate protests around Dublin Airport will start from Estuary Road and Northwood Road.
A similar protest last Thursday caused significant disruption to traffic on roads approaching the city centre, around the airport and on the streets surrounding Merrion Square.
Organisers said that between 1,000 and 1,200 drivers participated.
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The drivers are protesting against a move by Uber to offer fixed fares to customers booking journeys through its app or website, a move they claim has the potential to significantly cut the fares they receive in many cases.
Under the system, the passenger pays either the fixed fare or the amount shown on the meter, whichever is lower. The drivers say that where a car is then delayed by traffic or forced to take an alternative route, they lose out, substantially in some cases.
“Fixed fares are destroying the ability of Irish taxi drivers to earn a living,” said Derek O’Keeffe of Taxi Drivers of Ireland.
“You cannot impose artificial pricing on a regulated industry and pretend there are no consequences. Families are being hurt, drivers are being worked into the ground. This is exploitation, not innovation.”
Uber said the system offers certainty to customers and has the potential to generate additional business that would benefit the drivers.
The National Transport Authority (NTA), which regulates taxis, said it is powerless to act once metered fares are not exceeded and that it has no role in the contractual arrangements between companies and drivers.
The drivers want Government to amend the regulations to prohibit such schemes, saying they breach the spirit of the current rules, under which only drivers can discount a fare.
The company said drivers are offered each trip with the fare specified and are free to turn it down, at which stage it is simply offered to another driver.
“This business model is built on one thing – transfer all risk to the driver and take the profit at the top,” said Mr O’Keeffe. “We’re witnessing the slow destruction of a regulated profession in real time.”
Under the current system, he said, fares are reviewed by the NTA every two years with all of the costs involved in the business weighed up and charges set at a level believed to be fair to drivers and customers and capable of attracting or retaining enough drivers to provide the service required in Dublin.
The fixed-fare system, he added, undermines this.
It is estimated that about 6,000 of the country’s 18,000 taxi drivers accept work through Uber.
