PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger has said that Uber’s introduction of fixed taxi prices in the Irish market could create a “wild west” situation here.

Coppinger said she has been “inundated” with taxi drivers voicing concern about the “new model that Uber is trying to foist” on them.

Last week, Uber announced that it was introducing fixed taxi prices in Ireland.

When booking a taxi with Uber, or similar online operators, a price range of the approximate cost of the journey appears.

The range is typically a few euros but a variety of factors, such as heavy traffic or alternative routes being taken due to road traffic collisions, could see the price end up being higher than the passenger anticipated.

Now when booking a taxi with Uber, users have the option to go with Taxi Fixed Price, which means they see the maximum guaranteed price upfront.

Uber says this results in “no more guessing, no more meter anxiety”.

If the final price on the meter ends up costing less than the initial price, users will pay the lower price.

Uber noted however that changes after the booking, such as adding extra stops, changing the destination, or requesting an alternate route, will result in the price changing.

Speaking today, Coppinger remarked that “a lot of working class people depend on being taxi drivers, both Irish workers and migrant workers”.

She described the fixed rate fare as an “attempt to undermine taxi drivers and undermine locally agreed procedures that the National Transport Authority can regulate”.

Coppinger also claimed that Uber has become “the wild west in many countries”.

“Uber hasn’t managed to do that in Ireland yet,” said Coppinger, “but this is what it’s attempting to do.

“It’s undermining the ability of taxi drivers to have some say over their own livelihoods, and ultimately it will mean worse conditions for them.

“We want to properly regulate the public transport system, not a wild west situation.

“This idea of ‘it’s a private company, they can do what they like’, is exactly what Uber wants.”

Coppinger said she will be asking the Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, to “intervene”.

“It’s undermining the NTA and the regulations and agreements that they have with the drivers,” added Coppinger.

“We have to have it regulated so that prices don’t go off the charts.”

As of June 2024, Uber had over 6,000 drivers working with the service and over the weekend, up to 1,000 of these drivers said they would switch off their Uber app in a protest against the introduction of the fixed taxi prices.

The protest coincided with an Irish Rugby fixture against Japan at the Aviva Stadium.

The organisers of the protest told The Journal that they turned off the app during the game to “send Uber a message” and that they hoped the company would “take notice”.

Uber has fixed upfront pricing in other jurisdictions and though the model has faced legal challenges in the form of a class action from drivers in the past, the model has generally been deemed legal.