Uber’s Zagreb Launch Closer to Reality

Three months ago we reported about taxi-hailing company Uber’s plans to enter the Zagreb market. This week it looks like nightmare for local taxi drivers is about to happen as the company has advertised jobs in the Croatian capital…

Uber, which is a mobile-app-based transportation network which allows customers to submit a trip request, which is then routed to crowd-sourced private drivers, have advertised job vacancies in Zagreb on their website, further proof that they are about to launch. Uber are looking for a General Manager, as well as an Operations and Logistics Manager in Zagreb.

Uber has recently expanded into Bucharest, Vienna and Warsaw, and Croatia has been their next target for a while now. Uber’s ‘International Launcher’ Rob Khazzam was in the capital earlier this year.

Radio Taxi Zagreb Association warned earlier that Uber will be met with strong resistance.

“I can not believe that it will be allowed. It reminds me of anarchy or a banana republic. To be a legal taxi driver here you need a mountain of paper work. You must finish traffic school, pass exams and then an expert test. There are also requirements about the type of car you can use. You need between 20,000 -30,000 euros to be able to operate as a taxi. After all that they will come with some application and take our jobs. We will fight with all our might that it does not come to that,” said President of Radio Taxi Zagreb Association Jozo Kovačević.

Uber, which is currently available in over 50 countries and more than 200 cities worldwide, has been controversial with many governments and taxi companies protesting, alleging that its use of unlicensed, crowd-sourced drivers was unsafe and illegal. Any driver with a valid drivers licence can apply to be a driver.

It is estimated that Uber, founded by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp as UberCab in 2009, will generate 10 billion USD in revenue by the end of 2015.