Mexico City could be first city globally to limit the number of Uber cars
Exclusive: Mexico City could be first globally to limit
Uber cars - draft
By Max De Haldevang 18 hours ago
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico City could become the
first city in the world to limit the number of Uber cars, according to draft
regulation that the company said on Friday also threatens to wipe out its most
popular service in the giant metropolis.
Aside from the fleet limit, the plan seen by Reuters aims
to enforce a minimum car value of 250,000 pesos ($15,909) on Uber and companies
like it, a big worry for the ride-hailing service that is coming under
increasing pressure from regulators.
The San Francisco-based company said the minimum value
would hit hard Uber X, its cheapest and most popular service used by 90 percent
of drivers. The start-up cost to most drivers using the service was about
150,000 pesos, Uber said.
"This would imply the end of Uber X," the
company said in a statement. "This would dramatically increase the cost
and decrease availability for Mexican riders."
A Mexico City government official working on the
regulation confirmed the details of the plan, which was drafted on Thursday and
is expected to be finished next week. The official noted that details of the
draft are still being negotiated.
The draft does not specify the exact car limit.
Regulation by Mexico City would be the first for Uber in Latin America.
All cars in Mexico City worth over 250,000 pesos are
subject to an annual tax, meaning the proposed regulation carries a potential
double-whammy for the services.
No city in the world has yet imposed a cap on the number
of Uber cars in circulation, Uber's public policy chief Corey Owens said this
week in an interview.
Ruben Alcantara, a taxi union leader, said he would
demand that Uber's cars cost at least 400,000 pesos when he meets with the
government to discuss the regulation on Monday.
Uber, which has been valued at over $40 billion, opened
in Mexico City in 2013 and says it is one of its fastest-growing markets with
500,000 customers and over 10,000 drivers, some of whom share cars.
Its competitor Cabify, which says it has 300,000 users in
the city, said a limit on its number of vehicles made "no sense"
because many of its drivers worked part-time.
The planned regulation would also require Uber's drivers
to have permits and to pay a percentage of its revenue to a city transport
fund, as shown by an earlier draft.
A city official said on Tuesday the permits were expected
to cost 1,599 pesos a year and the revenue levy would be 1.5 percent, a figure
that Owens put at the "high end" of what the company pays in other
major cities.
The figures could still change, officials say.
($1 = 15.7143 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Max de Haldevang; Editing by Dave Graham,
Bernard Orr)
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