Legal blows to Uber raise taxi plate prices in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

The average price of a taxicab license plate in Istanbul has increased 6.6 percent in just two days, after the city municipality declared its support for the government’s new regulation to prevent “illegal passenger transportation,” particularly aimed at Uber drivers.

At Istanbul’s Otocenter estate, the focal point of car dealers and buyers, the price of a taxicab license plate rose to 1.6 million Turkish Liras, daily Habertürk reported on June 1.

The average taxicab license plate recovered to 1.5 million liras at the start of the week after it had hit as low as 1.4 million liras in March when tensions between yellow taxi and Uber drivers erupted, the report said. The prices were around 1.7 million liras at the start of March.

Municipality follows suit

Meanwhile, the municipality’s Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME) has decided to tighten measures against illegal passenger transportation.

“It has been detected that illegal transportation is being carried out via mobile applications by using the D2 certificates issued by the Transport Ministry and the Tourism Passenger Transport Certificate issued by the municipality. A range of decisions have been put into effect to prevent misuse of documents for transportation,” the UKOME stated on May 31.

The police and the gendarmerie will tighten inspections and in the event of an offense the Tourism Passenger Transport Certificate and the Public Transport Certificate of the offender will be suspended for six months. If the offense reoccurs then certificates will be revoked, the offender will be restricted from applying for certificates for two years, and the vehicle will be blacklisted, the statement added.

Ahead of the UKOME statement, Istanbul Mayor Mevlüt Uysal voiced support for the government’s new regulation to restrict ridesharing practices.

“Individuals and firms that have got tourism certificates can only transport their tourist customers between certain points, or they can show their customers around Istanbul. We will not permit the misuse of documents that we have issued,” Uysal said.

“We advise taxi drivers to renew themselves on a system that would be a complete substitute to Uber,” he added, promising to support regular yellow taxi drivers if they subscribe to a mobile application developed by the municipality, called “iTaksi.”

Regulation tightened

On May 25, the government changed the Road Transport Law to increase the fines applied to contract-based transport certificate holders who illegally serve as taxis.

According to the new rules, a certificate holder company caught carrying passengers illegally will be fined 3,006 liras. If the offense reoccurs then the certificates related to all of the company vehicles will be revoked and the company will be put on a blacklist for two years, making it unable to apply for a certificate.

Istanbul Taxicab Merchants Chamber (İTEO) head Eyüp Aksu, whose photographs with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım appear on the chamber’s website, said on May 29 that the new regulation “finishes Uber.”

However, a representative of the up to 15,000 Uber drivers vowed on May 31 that they will not give up.

“A total of 150-200 vehicles are registering with Uber on average every day,” said Ersin Kula, the chair of the Transportation and Tourism Services Association, which Uber drivers are members of.

“We want to work with all local stakeholders to improve urban mobility in Turkish cities and are fully committed to being a true partner to Turkey for the long term,” Uber stated on May 30.

More than 6,200 Uber drivers have been fined a total of 18.9 million liras so far this year, while 3,613 transport certificates have been revoked, according to traffic control data compiled by daily Hürriyet. Uber passengers have also been fined a total of 2.1 million liras.