With growth slowing, Uber continues to spar with local officials around the world looking to limit Uber cars on their streets
San Francisco/Cape Town — Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick used to tell investors he liked to keep his company teetering between order and chaos.
In Cape Town, for example, Uber dominates the market with an estimated 7,000 drivers, most of whom are operating illegally, according to city officials. Uber blames Cape Town’s"broken" system for approving ride-hailing licences. Uber’s economics “are not immediately or obviously attractive for sustainable, long-term investment,” Mark Hargraves, head of Framlington global equities at AXA Investment Managers, said in a recent note to clients.
Foreign-born drivers must also have work permits, paperwork many of them lack, according to city aldermen and drivers. The city estimates there is a market for about 2,100 Uber drivers. Alderman JP Smith said part of Cape Town’s calculus is to head off violence that could result if too many taxi drivers are put out of business by new ride-hailing rivals. In the larger cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg, some Uber and taxi drivers have been killed and their cars torched as part of an ongoing turf war.
As city officials in the US have gotten scrappier, Uber has sought out friendlier state legislators to work around them.
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