At least 62 Uber vehicles have been impounded in Cape Town over the last week, and as many as 140 in the last two weeks.
Merle Lourens of the City of Cape Town’s Transport Enforcement Unit (TEU), told Cape Talk that this was because the impounded Uber vehicles were either operating without the necessary permits, or in contravention of these permits.
In the last two weeks, 140 Uber vehicles were impounded during “joint ops” with South African Police Services. This also resulted in more than 1 300 fines being handed to Uber vehicles for various offenses.
On Sunday, a traffic officer narrowly escaped being run over after an Uber driver allegedly tried to dodge a roadblock, and almost ran him over.
City of Cape Town Traffic Services spokesperson, Maxine Bezuidenhout, said TEU members were conducting a taxi enforcement operation in Mowbray when the driver bolted.
“Officers eventually stopped him on the N2 outbound at Borcherds Quarry. He indicated he wanted to get away because his vehicle had been impounded a week ago,” she said.
The driver was identified as an Uber driver by the logo visible on the open operating application in the vehicle.
“The device in the car showed he was an Uber driver,” she said.
Uber’s Samantha Allenberg said that they could not confirm whether the driver worked for them.
“We are trying to reach the City’s Traffic Services to gather more information on this incident in order for our Incident Response Team to confirm whether the driver in question is a driver on the Uber app. However, Uber strongly believes that all drivers should comply with all applicable rules of the road at all times which is included in our Community Guidelines, a guide for Uber driver-partners and riders,” she said.
At the end of April, the TEU impounded 57 Uber vehicles in the Green Point/Cape Town Central area in one weekend.
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