Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said ride hailing app Uber is finished in Turkey, following pressure from Istanbul taxi drivers who said it was providing an illegal service and called for it to be banned. About 17,400 taxis operate in Istanbul, home to about a fifth of Turkey’s population of 81 million people, and since Uber entered the country in 2014, tensions have risen sharply. Mr Erdogan’s statement came after new regulations were announced in recent weeks tightening transport licensing requirements, making it more difficult for drivers to register with Uber and threatening a two-year ban for violations. Recommended Uber appoints new European boss as it deals with legal challenges “This thing called Uber emerged. That business is finished. That does not exist anymore,” he said in a speech in Istanbul late on Friday. “We have our taxi system. Where does [Uber] come from? It is used in Europe, I do not care about that. We will decide by ourselves,” added Mr Erdogan, who is running for re-election in three weeks. Uber had no immediate response to his comment. After the transport licensing changes were announced it said it wanted to work with all sides to improve transport and to be “a true partner to Turkey for the long term”. Uber said that about 2,000 yellow cab drivers use its app to find customers, while another 5,000 work for UberXL, using large vans to transport groups to parties, or take people with bulky luggage to Istanbul’s airports. It declined to reveal the number of Uber users in Turkey, where it operates in Istanbul, and in the resort towns of Bodrum and Cesme in the summer months. Uber tips and tricks Show all 11 1 /11 Uber tips and tricks Uber tips and tricks Split fares with friends You can easily split a fare with your fellow riders, by swiping up from the bottom of the app during the journey, tapping your selected payment method and selecting Split Fare. After that, enter the names or phone numbers of the people you’d like to spread the cost of your ride with. They’ll be notified immediately, but will need to accept before the trip ends. Uber tips and tricks Save money with uberPool If you’re in no rush to get somewhere and are planning to travel alone or with one other person, you can save a lot of money by requesting an uberPool. You can either first select the uberPool option on the slider at the bottom of the app, or pick the uberX option and then choose Find an uberPool Match. Once you’ve entered your destination, the app will try to match you with other people that are heading the same way. Uber tips and tricks Change pickup location after requesting a ride Uber lets you change your pickup location after you’ve already made your booking. Just tap the Edit option next to your pickup location, type in or drag the pin to the new address and hit Confirm. You can, however, only do this once, and you can’t change the location to anywhere outside of the circle displayed on the app. Uber tips and tricks Control the music You can control the music in the car on the iPhone version of the Uber app by linking it to your Spotify Premium account. If you match with a driver who has connected music, you’ll see a Music bar at the bottom of the screen. Tap it, log into your account, connect to the car's speakers with Bluetooth, an AUX cable or USB, and play. Uber tips and tricks Save addresses If you regularly use Uber to travel to the same places, you can save some time by listing them as Favourites in the app. In the Settings menu, you’ll be prompted to add your home and work addresses, but you can save additional locations by tapping the More Saved Places option. Uber tips and tricks Schedule a trip You can schedule a ride up to 30 days in advance by tapping the symbol of a car with clock, just to the right of the Where To? bar. After you’ve selected your date and a 15-minute pickup window, you can edit the pickup location by tapping Current Location. Uber tips and tricks Automate your expenses If you use Uber for both personal and work purposes, it’s worth setting up a business profile. You can link it to your work email address - which is where receipts will be sent - and a different credit card too. In Settings, scroll down and tap Add Business Profile. Better still, you can hook it up to your Concur, Expensify, Chrome River or Certify account, to make the expenses process a lot smoother. Uber tips and tricks Share your trip details You can share the details of your trip, including the first name and vehicle information of your driver, and your real-time map location, with your friends and family for peace of mind. Once you've requested a ride and entered your destination, slide up from the bottom of your screen and tap Share My ETA. Uber tips and tricks Use Uber in Google Maps You can order an Uber through Google Maps, which can save you the hassle of switching between apps and copying and pasting an address. At the end of the trip, you can choose to either use the payment method saved with Uber or the one saved with Google. Uber tips and tricks Earn credit You can easily earn Uber credit by inviting your friends to create their own accounts. All you need to do is tap Free Trips in the main menu and Invite Friends. For every new user you manage to sign up, you’ll earn £5 of credit (and they’ll get their first trip free). Uber tips and tricks See your rating Uber relies on customers and drivers rating each other in the app, and you can see your score in the main menu, right beneath your name. If yours isn’t appearing, it’s probably because you haven’t taken enough trips yet. Earlier this year, Istanbul’s taxi drivers took Uber to court accusing it of hindering their business and operating illegally. Several reports said that Uber vehicles, drivers and customers were either mistreated, threatened or faced violence by yellow taxi drivers.<doc-sep>Uber vehicles under tight scrutiny following Erdoğan’s remarks ISTANBUL Istanbul traffic police have stepped up their inspections to identify Uber vehicles and motorcycles utilizing Scott, an Uber-like ridesharing app, following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s comments that Uber will no longer be in use in the Turkish metropolis. On June 2 a total of 26 drivers using Uber vans and three motorcycles were fined a total of 87,174 Turkish Liras ($18,743), while 29 passengers in these vehicles were fined 9,686 liras ($2,082), Doğan News Agency reported. “Something called Uber or Muber has arisen, that business is over now. There is no such thing anymore ... We already have a taxi system. Where has that arisen out of? It exists in Europe, I do not care,” Erdoğan had said in an iftar (fast breaking) speech on June 1, weighing in on a heated months-long dispute between the yellow taxi and Uber drivers. “The governor has all the authority on this issue. Our interior minister has given the order ... The traffic police will have a crackdown on them, they will do what is necessary. We will not let the taxi drivers be exploited,” he added.<doc-sep>New regulation in Turkey ‘finishes’ Uber, say taxi drivers Kazım Ataer - ISTANBUL Taxi associations have said they are satisfied with the Turkish government’s new regulation to “prevent illegal passenger transportation,” declaring the “end of Uber” in Turkey. “We regard the new regulation as positive. We find it a deterrent measure. As of today, Uber is finished. If an Uber vehicle is caught [by the police] a fine of 50 points and 3,006 Turkish Liras will applied. When the money is paid, the fine of 50 points will be canceled. But if a vehicle is caught a second time under any circumstances, the certificates of the related firm will be revoked and it will not be able to apply for a certificate for two years,” said Istanbul Taxicab Merchants Chamber (İTEO) head Eyüp Aksu on May 29. “Many firms have started to take back the D2 certificates that they gave [to Uber drivers],” Aksu added, referring to the documents given to private companies for unscheduled, contract-based passenger transportation without tickets or fares. The government ordered a change in the Road Transport Regulation to increase the fines applied to D2 certificate holders who illegally serve as taxis on May 25. According to the new rules, a D2 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. Some taxi drivers have demanded even harsher measures to prevent mobile application-based systems like Uber and others. “We want the fines to be more clear and deterrent. The police department should tighten the controls,” said Fahrettin Can, chair of the Istanbul Atatürk Airport Taxi Drivers Cooperative. Tensions have spiked in recent months between taxi drivers and Uber drivers in Istanbul, amid reports of physical attacks carried out by taxi drivers. On March 10, shots were fired at an Uber vehicle in the city’s Küçükçekmece district, after which Uber released a statement about the rising number of violent incidents targeting Uber vehicles in Turkey. Unlike in most other countries, Uber offers a more expensive service to customers. As a result, competition between traditional taxis and Uber in Turkey is largely based on quality rather than price, with many locals complaining of poor service provided by taxi drivers. İTEO and other associations have repeatedly called on the authorities to intervene and filed a suit against the Uber application. “Everyone should know that any business without a legal basis will end up like this … I thank everyone who has contributed to this decision, especially to the political authority,” said Ahmet Çavuş, the head of the taxi drivers association, at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport. On the other hand, “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.<doc-sep>
Istanbul (AFP) - Uber faces being banned in Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ride hailing app was "finished" on Saturday following an intense lobbying campaign from Istanbul taxi drivers. Erdogan's comments, in a late night speech Friday in Istanbul, came after the government agreed new rules that are expected to severely complicate Uber's operations in Turkey. Drivers of Istanbul's yellow taxis have over the last months waged an intense campaign to have Uber banned, saying the company is eating into their business without having a proper legal basis for work. "This thing emerged called Uber or Muber or whatever," said Erdogan. "But this issue is now finished. It's over now." "Our Prime Minister (Binali Yildirim) made the announcement. We have our system of taxis," he added. Yildirim's government last month issued a directive sharply hiking fines and threatened blacklisting for companies whose vehicles illegally work as taxis. The official taxi drivers association said at the time the measure would be a major threat to Uber, if it was properly enforced by the traffic police. Erdogan said that while Uber may be popular in some European countries, Turkey was different. "Why did it (Uber) emerge? Because it was in Europe. But what is Europe to me? We will take the decision ourselves." His comments come three weeks ahead of keenly contested presidential and parliamentary elections. Many Istanbul taxi drivers -- though not all -- are strong Erdogan supporters and the main taxi associations back him. - 'Pirate carrier' - After Erdogan spoke, dozens of taxi drivers rallied to support him outside of his private residence in the Uskudar district of Istanbul, the Dogan news agency said. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu backed up Erdogan's comments, describing Uber as a "unauthorised carrier, in other words a pirate carrier". "Turkey is a state of law. We don't need to say sorry for this. It (Uber) has not been given the authorisation to carry out taxi services," he was quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency as saying. Story continues The 17,400 official yellow taxis in Istanbul are a pillar of the city's often patchy transport system, but critics say that poor service and overcharging opened up an opportunity for Uber. However the taxi drivers slam Uber as "pirates" who are swallowing their incomes in an already tight market. Uber drivers have been physically attacked and even fired at, but taxi drivers reject being involved in a harassment campaign. Uber said this week it is committed to working in Turkey "to the end" and has insisted it is operating within the law. It has expanded rapidly in Turkey and according to Turkish press reports there are more than 10,000 Uber vehicles in Istanbul. The company did not comment on the situation on Saturday. The tension in Turkey is one of a number of headaches for Uber and its new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over last August after founder Travis Kalanick was ousted following a series of scandals. It has lost its license in London, although it is still operating there pending appeal, while its self-driving car programme in the United States suffered a blow with a deadly accident.