DutchNews, November 18, 2015
Taxi app firm Uber is stopping its
controversial Uberpop service in the Netherlands, the company said on
Wednesday.
Uberpop allows unlicenced drivers to use their own cars as taxis,
but has been branded as illegal by the Dutch courts.
The company is withdrawing
the service because Uberpop is a ‘hindrance to the constructive dialogue about
modernising the existing taxi rules’, Uber Nederland director Niek van Leeuwen
said in a blog post.
The services Uberblack, Uberlux and UberX, which involve
licenced drivers, are not affected.
Uber said earlier this year it would
support Uberpop drivers in getting taxi licences, but Van Leeuwen said in his
post that ‘we expect many of them will not be able to do this because of the
high cost of complying with all the legal obligations’.
Earlier this year,
transport ministry inspectors raised the fine payable by Uber for breaking taxi
sector rules to a maximum of €1m. Uberpop drivers themselves can be fined up to
€4,200 and are given a criminal record.
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