American Expatriate Costa Rica

Uber calls for flexible and innovative regulation

Uber raised its voice on Wednesday to reiterate its interest in a dialogue that allows issuing a regulation to put in order the operation of the popular mobile application.

It has been almost three years since Uber started offering its services in the country, and the company assures that they have 22 thousand drivers (called partners-collaborators) and that more than 780 thousand people have used transportation services.

The company’s position, formalized through a press release, comes almost two weeks after the formal taxi drivers pressured the government to close Uber’s operation in national territory.

For the company, the regulation must be flexible, innovative, and differentiating. It even gave as an example that in 132 jurisdictions of cities distributed throughout the world, relevant legal changes were made to validate the operation of the application.

Any government decision or negotiation must have the participation of the interested parties, focusing on the benefits for the population in general and keeping them at the center of the decision (…) the majority of its users are women and the two main reasons for women to choose Uber are price and security. In April this year, Uber reaffirmed its commitment to security and announced seven actions to strengthen the security of all collaborating partners and users,”

said the company.

According to Andrés Echandi, general manager of Uber for Central America, this app is the main source of income for 66% of the partners-collaborators. And in the case of the women who provide the service, 47% had no other source of income and another 86% generate stable earnings for their family.

Uber also pointed out that the installation of the center of excellence in a free zone of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) provides specialized support to collaborating partners and customers.

All of Latin America is served from San José, except Costa Rica, and it has generated 533 direct jobs.”

In the official notice, the company announced that it contracted an insurance with Assa to grant coverage to the almost 800 thousand users that use the application. The service covers:

Civil Liability for third parties and passengers.
Civil liability of the driver against third parties in excess of the Mandatory Insurance that the owner of each vehicle must keep.
Personal Accidents for occupants including medical expenses, accidental death, disability, and funeral expenses.

This coverage begins at the moment in which the partner-collaborator of Uber accepts the request for travel in the app and ends when the last passenger gets out of the vehicle,”

concluded the company.

crhoy.com