TestimonialsBetween 2014 and 2016, the American VTC company plays with the law in France to establish its domination over the sector. Accomplices in spite of themselves, the drivers bear the brunt of permanent insecurity.
“I started driving with my personal car, without any status or insurance for the transport of people. » In 2014, Nadir – the first name has been changed, as for all the drivers who agreed to testify in this article – launches into UberPop la fleur au fusil. Uber has just created in France this service presented as urban carpooling. The novice driver, in his forties, already has a salaried job in aircraft maintenance. The Lyonnais is seduced by the idea of cushioning his journeys to and from the airport, even if he suspects that “all is not in the nails”. “I knew that in carpooling, it’s the driver who sets the destination, not the passenger…he admits. But that didn’t make me feel like an outlaw. »
For the first few months, the demand and enthusiasm of UberPop customers silenced the fears of drivers. “It was going very well, insists Thierry, who starts in Lille after a period of unemployment. We were 10-15 vehicles to end up in the parking lots, not half an hour went by without it ringing. The customers were serious, respectful. » However, the varnish of ” carpooling “ peels off quickly. In Lyon, at the exit of the Eurexpo exhibition center, “a lot of customers called taxis, others Ubersays Nadir. There were a lot of people and the taxis had a hard time finding their customers. Helped by geolocation, we could chain three times more races than them “.
In November 2014, in Lyon, an evening “degenerates”. The “UberPop” flock to the exit of an electro festival. Taxis react with violence. “Flat tires, broken mirrors, intimidation…”says Nadir. In other cities too, incidents are increasing, forcing drivers to parades to ensure their safety. Nadir and his counterparts “report on WhatsApp the places where the taxis gather”. At the same time, Thierry, “one day stuck by a taxi” blocking his way, gets into the habit of asking customers to get in front. Drivers unhook their smartphone from the dashboard to go unnoticed. “It was tense around the party places, completes Abdel, who has been driving for UberPop since the summer of 2014. There are places where I no longer went. »
“Uber Files”, an international investigation
“Uber Files” is an investigation based on thousands of internal Uber documents sent by an anonymous source to the British daily The Guardianand forwarded to International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 media partners, including The world.
Emails, presentations, meeting minutes… These 124,000 documents, dated from 2013 to 2017, offer a rare dive into the mysteries of a start-up which was then seeking to establish itself in cities around the world despite a regulatory context. unfavorable. They detail how Uber has used, in France as elsewhere, all the tricks of lobbying to try to change the law to its advantage.
The “Uber Files” also reveal how the Californian group, determined to impose itself by a fait accompli and, if necessary, by operating illegally, has implemented practices deliberately playing with the limits of the law, or which may amount to judicial obstruction of the investigations of which he was the subject.
Find all our articles from the “Uber Files” survey
“We had to manage”
In early 2015, Thierry complained to Uber about growing difficulties, from taxis, but also from “UberPop drivers who do a little anything, show up with a car different from the one they declare and pass the accounts”. Grievances remained a dead letter, he assures: “People from Uber explained to us that it was complicated at the moment, and that basically, we had to manage. » The driver ends up throwing in the towel after nine months behind the wheel. “Complaining was like pissing in a violin, abounds Nadir. We came across people with ready-made answers: “We guarantee you that you have the right to drive”, “A company like ours would not be outside the law”…”
You have 65.4% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.