Uber Aims to Create 20,000 Jobs and Serve 2 More Mexican Cities

laht.com

MEXICO CITY – The transport company Uber plans to create up to 20,000 new jobs and serve another two cities in Mexico, the U.S. firm’s communications director for Latin America, Ana Paula Blanco, told Efe.

“We have plans to expand to two more cities but I can’t offer more details,” Blanco said in an interview with Efe, adding that in Mexico the company has its “largest operation in all Latin America and one of the most important for Uber internationally.”

Blanco recalled that “Uber’s advantage is that you can get a private driver who is within a maximum of five minutes from where you are,” and said that in Mexico, where it currently operates in Mexico City, Tijuana, Guadalajara and Monterrey, the firm has “expectations of creating between 15,000 and 20,000 jobs.”

People mostly use this service to go out at night, so they can drink alcohol and not have to drive home, and also because several people can share the fare, she said.

Besides Mexico, Uber also operates in Panama, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil.

The firm recently formed an alliance with the telephone company of Mexican magnate Carlos Slim, America Movil, that brings its app, which allows users to order a car on their smartphones, to new Latin American customers.

But as in other parts of the world, Uber in Latin America has come up against resistance from drivers, companies and unions of traditional taxis because it is not regulated.

The group Organized Taxi-Drivers of Mexico City last December filed a complaint against the capital’s Mobility Secretary Rufino Leon Tovar for allowing Uber to operated unregulated.

In Colombia, where it has operated since 2013 in Bogota and Cali, the transport minister warned last November that the service is illegal and is being investigated due to protests by traditional taxi-drivers.

“We’re cooperating with the authorities. But we are convinced that we must have more talks,” Blanco said about that case, observing that Uber “is not a service that goes against taxis – it’s not an option instead of, it’s an additional choice for users.”

Car-sharing Changing Mexicans’ Habits

by Murry Page

3 Jan 15 

mazmessenger.com

 

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)

Uber Teams Up with Mexico’s America Movil

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MEXICO CITY – Uber Technologies Inc. is joining Mexico-based cellular provider America Movil to expand its online car-booking service in Latin America.

The America Movil partnership “will help the rapid growth” of the company’s operations in the region, Uber America Latina said.

“America Movil will be a key provider of new lines for the Uber partner drivers all throughout Latin America and it will deliver the Uber app to more consumers,” the company said in a statement.

The first elements of the partnership became effective Tuesday in Mexico via America Movil’s Telcel, Uber said.

Uber’s app will be downloaded to millions of Android phones, included 10 million Telcel phones in Mexico.

The alliance “promotes the creation of new jobs through a wider offer of transportation options and a new wave of modernization in our country’s transportation,” said Uber Mexico director Rodrigo Arevalo.

Uber’s first market in Latin America was Mexico City, where the service debuted in August 2013, and the firm has enjoyed remarkable growth in the region, according to the statement.

Last month, Uber began operations in the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Monterrey, and in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, the firm said.

Tech giant Google, with more than 600,000 apps available on its Google Play Store, on Monday ranked Uber among 64 best mobile apps for the Android operating system.

Owned by multibillionaire Carlos Slim, America Movil serves more than 260 million subscribers in 18 countries.