Taxi drivers in Limburg are on strike against high Uber commission

Taxi drivers in Venlo and Roermond stopped working for Uber on Friday, L1 News reports. They joined an action by colleagues in Maastricht, in protest against the commission that Uber charges for rides. According to taxi entrepreneur Niels Nijssen from Venlo, that commission has increased in recent years from approximately 5 percent to sometimes as much as 50 percent, while fare prices have actually fallen. For journeys from Venlo to Germany, drivers are also not allowed to take new passengers due to regulations there, which means they often have to make the return journey without a customer.

The action is not an isolated event: an action group of more than a hundred Maastricht drivers previously announced a strike, demanding that Uber reduce the commission to a maximum of 15 percent. The dissatisfaction with the revenue models of platforms such as Uber is not only in Limburg, but in several regions in the Netherlands, and goes to the core of how taxi rides are priced via apps and distributed between platform and driver.