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Drivers from both companies, which have faced complaints from
taxi drivers all over the world for allegedly providing unfair
competition, offered free rides for 12 hours a day before the
strike, business association Unauto said.
In Spain, there are almost 11,000 vehicles with ride-sharing
licenses and more than 65,000 with taxi licenses, Public Works
Ministry data shows, with more than 150,000 taxi drivers and
15,000 Uber and Cabify drivers operating throughout the country.
Cabify driver Juan Antonio Sastre, 57, who left the ranks of
millions of long-term unemployed to join the company, said he
feared for his job ahead of the new regulation to be passed on
Friday.
"We don't know what is going to happen next, our future is
uncertain," he said, while taking part in the march.
Full details of the new regulation have yet to be announced,
though new laws are expected to include additional restrictions
for non-taxi services offered by the companies.
Backed by investors including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, and
valued at more than $70 billion, Uber views Western Europe as an
increasingly important market.
Uber has faced law suits in countries around the world, with
London cab drivers planning a class action law suit and New York
mulling capping the services after a spate of suicides by yellow
cab drivers struggling to compete.
Taxi drivers, who staged their own six-day strike at the
beginning of August to protest against licenses for Uber and
Cabify, say the services, which are hailed via smartphone apps
rather than on the street, are deliberately under charging.
"We cannot compete against corporations like Uber and Cabify,
their prices are way too low," Madrid taxi driver Jorge Gordillo,
33, said.
(Reporting by Sabela Ojea; Editing by Paul Day and Mark Potter)
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