Between palm trees and crystal-clear water, Cancun taxi drivers fight an ugly battle against the company Uber, which also wants to enjoy the multi-million dollar Caribbean business. What would be a purely labor issue in other countries around the world is riddled with obscure factors in Mexico that have resulted in roadblocks and street attacks that have escalated the matter to prosecutors and forced the Quintana Roo state government to intervene to stop the water at one of the most touristy places in the world is not overcrowded. The image and the income go into it. Excited minds and very contradictory positions, everyone agrees: this has become a social problem that threatens the future of the Riviera Maya and worries the population on a daily basis. The signal of imminent danger was given by the United States government when earlier in the week it warned its compatriots of the risk of being involved in unintended danger simply for requesting the service of an Uber.
The destination they call this area of the Riviera Maya, where last year tourist success was surpassed with 30 million visits, 12 of them in Cancun. Uber has wanted to be part of the taxi driver network since 2016, but always faced fierce opposition from the workers behind the wheel until the multinational won legal protections allowing its drivers to work privately in the hotel city., without going through the union to go or have the obligatory public concession to provide the service. The green gang vehicles blocked the road leading from the airport to the tourist area, causing traffic chaos in the city, and there were attacks on Uber drivers and their users, who were forcibly removed from the cars. Prime Minister Andrés Manuel López Obrador was quick to say there was more media noise than nuts, but no one was aware of the risk the goose that laid the golden eggs would be hurt. The Quintana Roo government immediately sent deputy governor Attorney Cristina Torres, who has already met with both parties separately and hopes to meet them on Monday, to make it clear to them that there is no choice but to use Uber to allow access to the territory, but also that some regulations are necessary in the sector, which legal protection recognizes when the legislator is “allowed a great deal of discretion to choose the way in which those involved in the provision of the service people have to work”.
A vehicle joins the union in Cancun, which taxi drivers Emilio Espejel must join
“There is a market for everyone,” says Secretary of State Cristina Torres in a sober office in Cancun, from where she conducts negotiations. Everyone already knows that Uber’s entry into the business is irrevocable. “If we don’t regulate that, there will be another form of protection,” admits the State Secretary. Now it’s a matter of seeing how they do it so that everyone is happy. The taxi drivers say they have to pay the public concession to operate the service, but the court order clarifies they can do it privately. Therefore, the government is content to implement some measures that prevent bad habits. “We want Uber to agree that we monitor all of its drivers to see who is on the platform and who isn’t. That they understand that they cannot just be a platform provider. They also plan to charge the company and inspect the vehicles. Uber requires vehicle insurance to operate on the platform, but doesn’t monitor compliance,” says Torres. In Mexico, millions of public and private vehicles have no statutory insurance.
The bottom line is the loose sleeves that Riviera Maya taxi drivers have worked with for years, benefiting from a union they are bound to join and pay a fee for. Today, they complain that the state, which employs about 25,000 taxi drivers, including 8,600 in Cancun, has not made any new public concessions or updated the fares that must be charged for the various routes for years. The result is an abuse of the arbitrary prices they levy on tourists and a disregard for the local population that has earned them enmity with the people of Cancun, reflected today in private videos that have gone viral of them showing “dogs” and “dogs” are called. Corrupt”. Locals also complain of criminal practices. Riding in a public taxi is not about raising your hand on the street to stop it. Virtually across the country, users of this mode of transport have been victims of kidnapping and sexual abuse, especially women .
A handful of local companies operate at Cancun Airport, charging around $35 per person for the ride to the Hotel Zone. Arriving in the city, a taxi driver stops, the desired route is displayed through the window and the driver says: “It will cost you 120 pesos [unos 6,50 dólares, parecida cifra en euros]“. Along the same route, another asks 100 and again 200 pesos as he pleases and depending on the accent of the applicant. Sometimes, when Cancun residents ask, the cab won’t even stop. Many do not provide a note for the amount received and the taximeter is an unfamiliar device in Mexico. The president of the state union, Eliazar Sagredo Ordóñez, accuses the government of Quintana Roo of this arbitrariness, “which during the previous six years in office has not updated the tariffs and everything has increased sharply, petrol, repairs. No other concessions were granted. And in the previous mandates that were given, one part was for the union and the other part for the personal commitment of the politicians”. This matter is also known to all locals.
Locals use the shared taxi in the city of Cancun as an alternative to high transportation prices Emilio Espejel
Taxi drivers are not enemies of the companies operating at the airport, “the entry of Uber will affect everyone,” they say. And the hoteliers are also asking for calm so that tourism is not affected. “What we are asking for is a flat floor, that we pay all taxes, the state concession and other expenses,” Sagredo Ordóñez demands. “The state must regulate, it is its legislative responsibility, the multinationals put the money in tax havens, nothing for the state,” adds the union leader, who is already calling for meetings with local MPs to negotiate the new mobility law to organize the sector. Other platforms like Cabify and Didi have started to operate under union-dictated terms, but they have semi-prohibited territory. No entering hotels to pick up customers. When a ride is requested through the platform, several taxi drivers accept and cancel it. Eventually one of them accepts, but picks up the user one street behind the hotel to avoid interfering with the shared taxis that are everywhere. And they don’t leave the customer exactly at the destination, but a few meters away. Nobody wants to take on the union. It’s not surprising. When the dispute with Uber these days is mentioned to a taxi driver, he replies bluntly: “Don’t be fooled, here as everywhere, the cartel rules. it’s money If they interfere in this business, they will kill one by one. blood will flow.”
Águeda Esperrilla is the one who gives voice to Uber drivers in Cancun these days. He’s been working in the city for six years when they allow him and always with precautions. He accuses the government and the union of redistributing the millions left over from the “daily quotas of 500 pesos charged each day to each unionized taxi working in the Hotel Zone.” Even if there are fewer, it’s still a brisk business. He says that on Kukulkan Boulevard, where most of the nocturnal tourists let their instincts run wild, Uber drivers pick up customers in the underground parking lots of the big and noisy crazy party venues. “They say that these clubs belong to the drug dealers and that they don’t want the taxi drivers to have confrontations with anyone here, so as not to spoil the business,” affirms Esperrilla at the doors of one of the city’s most emblematic venues, Coco Bongo. The avenue is hellish for the ears, coca is moving there and who knows what other illegal deals. In short, high voltage for every hole.
Águeda Esperrilla, spokeswoman for Uber drivers in Cancun, exits a parking lot. Emilio Espejel
The narco’s involvement in Cancun isn’t new to anyone. Last year there were shootings that killed several people in Tulum, Playa del Carmen and Cancun itself, in the busiest and most touristy areas, in elegant restaurants, exposing the drug market that moves in the area and the crime that she pulls through. of which taxi drivers are not exempt. Neither they nor almost everyone who sells anything in these areas.
The surveillance offered by the platforms is a safety factor for taxi drivers, and the competition, some say, is fine. The problem is that “unionised taxi drivers don’t know how to use new technologies,” says a Didi driver who declined to give his name. Cancun union leader Luis Mis has his own version. He reiterates that they also have a platform to request taxi service, but that “there hasn’t been enough public campaigning”. Now the government is considering designing a public, state platform for all members of Quintana Roo and finally regulating a freely circulating business. To do this, they need to conduct a market study. But first they must immediately establish peace in El Destino, where millions of Americans, Canadians, Colombians and Spaniards arrive each year, among the most. This week, everyone involved is called upon to negotiate. “I think we’ll be able to announce peace on Monday,” said Secretary of State Torres.
The tension is also palpable among the drivers, it is not easy to pull up to one of the dozen stops in the tourist area and take a few photos. The taxi drivers do not want to see the journalists, who are accused of misrepresenting what is happening. And they don’t hesitate to threaten her in very bad ways. They also take pictures with their phones and warn them to be “careful”. In Mexico, threats are no jokes. The union leader in Cancun condemned the attacks by some taxi drivers, but mentioned “the provocations by Uber drivers who cannot work and are taking to the streets”. It will do so, according to the government’s interpretation, when everything is settled. “We love this city and don’t want to spoil tourism,” says Mis calmly.
The Caribbean has always been a sea of pirates. Today, that doesn’t seem to have changed much, even if tourists don’t learn much about anything in their luxury resorts. And the matter is not entirely clear in the case of the taxi union either. “In tourist destinations, a lot of people pretend to be an operator and we don’t have the tools to tell if they are or not, so we want to monitor drivers,” says Torres. And ditch. “There are pirate taxis and pirate Uber.”
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