One of the reason car services like Uber, SnapCar, and LeCab are popular and starting to gain more traction is because they offer conveniences and act as an alternative to taxi services. Unfortunately it looks like over in France, the French government has recently passed a new law in which it requires car services, like Uber, for example, to wait a good 15 minutes before picking anyone up. This law has been passed as a means to help protect local taxi drivers who are starting to feel threatened by these new services. The reason behind this is because in order to get a taxi license, at least as far as France is concerned, it takes quite a fair bit of time and expense to do so, as opposed to car services which do not seem to have the same requirements which admittedly does seem unfair.
The passing of this law actually comes as somewhat of a surprise to everyone in France, especially since even the French competition authority has deemed the law to be ill-thought-out. A spokesperson for the private car companies has called the new law “absurd, unjust and incomprehensible” and has vowed to fight it. We have to say that this new rule does not make much sense because why should someone have to wait 15 minutes even if they’re just around the corner? What if there were no taxis in the area? Is someone expected to stand in the rain or in a dodgy neighborhood just to satisfy local taxi drivers? What do you guys think of this new law?