Taxi drivers in big European cities stage strike in protest at privateers
Drivers protesting at apps like Uber which they say cut into their business
Taxi drivers brought parts of London, Paris and other European cities to a standstill yesterday as they protested against new private cab apps such as Uber which have shaken up the industry.
Thousands of London's black cabs, many of them beeping their horns, filled the roads around Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament to the exclusion of any other vehicles.
We’re governed by a set of rules and they don’t seem to apply to Uber
In Paris, hundreds of drivers blockaded the French capital's airports and staged a "go-slow" during the morning rush hour, while protests were also staged in Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Rome and Milan.
Long-running complaints about competition from private hire and unlicensed taxis have been crystallised by the new challenge posed by smartphone-dependent car services.
California-based company Uber is the main target of the drivers' ire, thanks to an increasingly popular app that is now used in 128 cities in 37 different countries.
Uber allows customers to order and pay for a car using their phone, with geo-locating technology connecting them to the nearest taxi driver.
Unlike other private hire cabs - those that must be pre-booked - Uber drivers use the app to fix the fare, rather than it being calculated by a central operator.