After years of sparring, cabs in New York City and Uber will now join forces. Rides in yellow taxis can be booked through the Uber starting this summer in a groundbreaking deal.
Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT), which provides the technology systems for the more than 13,000 New York City taxis, said it will gain access to Uber's customer base. The partnership comes as Uber has been struggling to meet demands and taxi drivers were swallowed by debt during the pandemic.
"This is a real win for drivers – no longer do they have to worry about finding a fare during off peak times or getting a street hail back to Manhattan when in the outerboroughs," Guy Peterson, Uber's director of business development, said in a statement. "And this is a real win for riders."
The official merging of Uber and taxi will roll out to the general public this summer. Uber users will have access to the thousands of yellow taxis, CMT says. In turn, taxi drivers will see Uber-originated fares on their monitors.
For years, cab drivers around the world have been protesting Uber for crashing their market. When COVID-19 struck, taxi drivers, particularly in New York, were even worse off. The city set up a program to help with debt, but last October, drivers went on a weeks-long hunger strike to demand more relief.
But now, as the COVID restrictions subside, the partnership between Uber and New York's taxis could be coming at the right time.
"New York City is back!," Ron Sherman, CMT's chairman, said. "As businesses bring their employees back, as tourists flock to New York City again and as New Yorkers start going out and replenishing our local economy after a devastating pandemic, yellow taxis and Uber are bringing the best our industries have to offer to help this city get back on its feet." Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.