Government should ban taxi fare algorithms, TD says

Ottoline Spearman

A TD has called for the Government to legislate to ban algorithms from being used to decide taxi fares.

It comes as drivers have been meeting the Government this week to discuss their demands and objections to the Uber model.

Dublin West TD Ruth Coppinger has called for a boycott of Uber and the introduction of legislation to ban algorithms from calculating fixed fares.

Speaking on Newstalk, she said: "There's two things that need to happen. I think the drivers need to boycott Uber.

"I think everybody here, TDS and public figures should say that they won't use Uber for what they are doing to these drivers.

"However, that isn't sufficient because we need to legislate as well."

Over the past few weeks, taxi drivers have been conducting "slow protests" in Dublin to object to Uber's introduction of fixed rates.

Drivers say that fixed fares will mean that when a car is delayed by traffic or forced to take an alternative route, they lose out, substantially in some cases.

A planned six-day protest for this week was recently put on hold, pending the outcome of Government talks this week.