Taxi drivers to stage protest in Dublin city over Uber's fixed fares structure

Kenneth Fox

Taxi drivers will stage a "go slow" protest in Dublin on Thursday evening, against fixed fares by Uber.

Some 1,500 taxi drivers are set to engage in a ‘slow drive’ at three strategic points — Dublin Airport, Clontarf, and Phoenix Park — from 4.30pm on Thursday, before converging on Government Buildings.

As the Irish Examiner reports, they claim the measure by the app is destabilising the industry and undermining existing fare structures.

A protest took place in the city on Saturday, and drivers say Thursday's is an escalation of that.

That option means that Uber users agree on a fare in advance of taking their trip. Should the meter read less than the agreed fare, the customer pays the lower price. 

If the meter is higher, due to adverse traffic or other factors, the passenger pays only the pre-agreed fixed fare.

Uber said the approach “has been shown to increase rider confidence and trip demand”.

About a third of Ireland’s more than 17,000 taxi drivers make use of Uber to source fares.

The drivers, who are not represented by any formal union body, are calling for the Government to intervene and update the existing regulations to outlaw what Uber has done.

“We said if we didn’t hear back we’d increase the severity of our protest. We haven’t heard back so we’re going to escalate,” David Mitchell, a Dublin-based driver and one of the protest’s co-ordinators, said of the planned two-hour protest.

He used the analogy of a publican cutting the price of a pint and his barman’s salary, before raising the price again but leaving the barman’s wage at the lower level.

“Find me one person who would accept that,” he said.