Macau protesters demand legalisation of Uber as ride-hailing company set to leave city

More than 300 supporters of car-hailing service Uber in Macau took to the streets in the sweltering heat yesterday to protest against the government’s crackdown on the outgoing operator as they accused the authorities of protecting the vested interests of the taxi trade with messy transport policies.

Holding placards that read “We need Uber, no more tickets”, and shouting slogans calling for the legalisation of Uber, the protesters marched from Tap Seac Square to the Macau government headquarters in Avenida da Praia Grande, demand that the government consider opening up the market to ride-hailing firms with ride-sharing regulations.

The rally came as the ride-hailing firm is set to bid farewell to the casino enclave on September 9, blaming heavy penalties imposed on its drivers, harassment to passengers and the authorities’ reluctance to regulate the car-sharing industry. Uber, operating in the enclave since October last year, has worked with over 2,000 full-time and part-time drivers and claimed it had generated MOP$21 million (HK$19.9 million) in economic activity for local residents.

Jeremy Lei Man-chao, spokesman for organiser Macao Community Development Initiative, said that due to a dire lack of taxis – many of them refuse to take local residents – there is a demand gap, which can be filled by Uber’s ride-hailing service. At present, there are over 1,300 taxis in Macau, which has a population of about 650,000 and an annual average of over 30 million tourists.

“Macau taxi [service] is fraught with problems, including refusal to [pick up] local residents, overcharging and cherry-picking of passengers ... All taxi drivers prefer to take tourists,” Lei said. “As a responsible government, it needs to introduce competition to improve the provision of taxi services and also other mode of services to satisfy the public demand,”he added.