Falling in line with earlier reports, Uber has today announced that it has restarted its operations in Taiwan after a lengthy two-month halt.
Uber had suspended its operations in Taiwan owing to pressure from the government authorities. The company faced backlash over its ride-hailing services from authorities and local taxi associations. The major problem cited with Uber was that it signed unlicensed drivers to their platform, thus the government started implying large sums of fines on its driver partners.
What started out as fines of around NT$50,000 to NT$150,000 (approx $1,600 – $4,800) peaked to over NT $25 million (approx $780,000) in recent months. Since Uber still continued to operate without any worries, the government made an amendment to its transportation laws to ban the operation of unlicensed cabs. The company was faced with penalties of about $36 million w.r.t to new laws. It had been fined on 35 separate occasions but the government hasn’t received any amount of the total penalties.
In an official statement on its blog, Uber states that it has been meeting with Taiwan’s transportation authorities to hold constructive talks — most likely about their operations and laws, in general. And the ride-hailing behemoth has come up with a solution for its woes in the country. It has revamped its business model for Taiwan, where it will now partner with legal ‘rental car companies’ who employ licensed drivers under them. Now, unlicensed cabbies will be signed up to these rental companies to bring them back on the platform to seamlessly serve its passengers.
Commenting on their return, Likai Gu, General Manager of Uber Taiwan said:
It is great to be back again serving Taiwanese riders, drivers, and cities. Starting today, people in Taipei can book an Uber ride, and we expect to bring back Uber to other cities in near future.
We want to partner with more legal transportation service partners in weeks and months to come, whether they be from rental car companies or the taxi industry.
Well, this is potentially the only dash of good news for Uber in recent times. The ride-hailing giant has otherwise been plagued with allegations of sexual harassment at the workplace, multiple management-level exits, and an ongoing legal battle with Google’s self-driving division Waymo. And just earlier today, reports of Uber using a secret software called ‘Hell’ to track its competitor — Lyft’s drivers has surfaced on the interwebs. With the #DeleteUber campaign always on the verge of making a rapid return, the company’s reputation is at stake at the moment.
