Companies like Uber, Cabify, and Tripda are changing the way Mexicans think about traveling in cities where these companies are providing there services.
The companies are changing the ways Mexicans go about their business providing them with more options and upsetting local taxi companies.
Instead of walking to the nearest taxi stand or making a telephone call to request a taxi, users can now call for a car by just pressing an app on their mobile phone.
The use of private vehicles with drivers, who do not hold a chauffer’s license, is upsetting taxi drivers and companies. On December 10 the Organized Taxi Drivers of México City filed a complaint against Rufino H. Leon Tovar, Secretary of Municipal Transportation for the Federal District.
Their complaint alleges that Leon Tovar has failed to deal with these car-sharing companies and “those responsible for individual transport of passengers in the city without (being awarded) a concession” to do so, claiming that they are violating the Transport Law, which prohibits the use of private vehicles for business purposes.
Daniel Medina, a member of the Taxi Drivers organization, said that taxi drivers are losing up to 10 percent of their business to these unregulated companies.
Edgardo Rivera Torres, Chief Executive Officer for Cabify and one of the defendants in the case, told reporters “we’ve met with the local authorities and they’ve told us that we’re not a substitute for the taxi service; our customers use (cabs) every day for certain needs and they use us for others.”
The latest car-sharing company to begin business in México is Tripda. With Tripda, users can post announcements of their upcoming car trips and offer seats in their vehicles in exchange for a price they set.
Oscar Rosado, the head of Tripda in México, said, “the cost of the gasoline is shared,” adding that the service is aimed particularly at “millennials” (the 18-30 age group) because of their consumption tendencies. He noted “They’re always connected to the Net, they have a more open feeling about ecology and less connection with material things.”
Tripda provides travel between cities, but Oscar Rosado added there are also routes that are being developed within municipal areas, because “there are routes (in the capital) that, due to distance and time, are considered long distance in other countries,” and also “70 percent of the cars on the road have just one passenger, wasted space that affects all traffic here.”
Rivera Torres said that he thought opposition from the traditional transport sector is natural. “It’s going as in any industry in which there is a revolution in service. Nobody accepts the change passively,” he added.
“What I really believe is that it’s the future; a trend on the global level that can’t be ignored. Customers are not being manipulated or hypnotized. They’re looking for something that they’re not getting (elsewhere),” Rivera Torres said.
(from Latin America Herald Tribune)
