Consumers should have an alternative to traditional taxi services - says Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
The head of Uber, a company clashing with taxi services all over the world, has denied that his firm is aggressively under-cutting cabbies.
Travis Kalanick Uber CEO
Travis Kalanick’s, CEO of Uber, an app service which accepts taxi bookings via smartphone instead of relying upon traditional phone bookings, has come under scrutiny in many of the 200 cities it operates in.
Uber, formed in 2009, has been accused of threatening the livelihood of taxi drivers to the extent that cabbies all over the world have been fighting against the app.
Meanwhile critics have also commented on the dangers of using unaccredited drivers.
Kalanick told the BBC: “There's probably some misunderstanding of who I am and how I roll, I've never been derogatory towards taxi drivers.”
The Uber head admited that taxi drivers will have superior local knowledge to Uber drivers, who often have to rely on a sat-nav, later he adding that cabbies charge more for that knowledge.
“Consumers should have the choice. If they can get a reliable ride that's half the price of a black cab, shouldn't they be able to have that choice?"
Last month, London cab drivers staged a protest designed to bring the city of London to a stand-still to raise awareness of the damage they claim Uber does to their business.