MEXICO CITY — Times are tough for Uber in many parts of the world, from a recent California ruling that its drivers cannot be classified as contractors to a Paris taxi protest that became a riot and led France’s president to promise a crackdown.
But the smartphone-based ride-hailing app might soon get some good news in Mexico City.
Ahead of a city government decision on its future, Uber recently got a ringing, though nonbinding, endorsement from the influential Federal Economic Competition Commission. Even Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission has weighed in favoring the service.
While Uber has faced legal hurdles that forced it off the road in some places, officials have signaled it might be allowed to remain in this megalopolis of 20 million-plus inhabitants.
“Generally speaking, the more options consumers have, the better off they are,” said competition commission chairwoman Alejandra Palacios Prieto. “They will receive better services and pay better prices for those services.”
That’s not to say it hasn’t been a bumpy road.
Licensed cabbies have staged protests demanding authorities arrest Uber drivers and seize their cars. Some vowed to “hunt down” Uber vehicles, and in one case cabbies bashed doors and a windshield with baseball bats while a terrified client sat inside.
A large taxi union has vowed not to obey cab regulations if Uber isn’t required to do the same.
Legal approval would amount to recognition that despite complaints of unfair competition, app-based services like Uber and the smaller Cabify have become widely popular here, in part because much old-school cab service is terrible.
The green-and-white Volkswagen Beetle taxis were once practically synonymous with assaults and kidnappings.
But Mexico City has since improved licensing enforcement and decommissioned old-model cabs. Today, the Beetles, known locally as “vochos,” are extinct, and cab crime has fallen somewhat, according to official statistics.