Taxi drivers plan strike tomorrow to protest Uber: http://mobile.english.rfi.fr/general/20150620-french-taxis-take-uber-threaten-unlimited-strike-thursday
While some allegedly take matters into their own hands: http://www.thelocal.fr/20150623/taxi-versus-uber-battle-in-france-turns-ugly
These are great examples of the mind set of the taxi nation in France. It shall be interesting to see how this plays out.
Someone in transportation is always on strike in France. Either the airlines, trains, buses, or taxis are sure to be on strike when you go.
Wish T-Mobile had been an option for my daughter but it wasn’t. It was a vacation and she doesn’t travel internationally any more than she can afford to do so out of her own pocket. At 22 years old, that isn’t often.
Yes Taxi drivers are on strike right now to protest against Uber non professional drivers ( Uber pop). They block main Access to Paris and obviously the highway between CDG to Paris.
So its a bad day to arrive in Paris today.
Michael it’s not totaly true or false that you say but the truth is the transports often choose holidays and worst moment to be on strike so for foreigners it seems we are always protesting for something 
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Thomas
A friend just sent a note as she arrived a few hours ago at CDG from the US. No taxi or buses (AF or Roissy) running from CDG and that she’s on her way to jostle with the masses at the RER terminal at T2.
The worst thing about a very crowded RER at this time of the year is … no A/C !
Haha yes it’s true ! i often take this line of RER and it’s the worst line , often delays , too much passengers not enough trains and the worst no A/C during the summer… But you can open windows !!
Pay a motorcyclist to drive you around…
The Daily Beast: Kanye and Courtney Love Flee Uber Riot. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwl-3V6iE
Manifestations are only one reason why I use a car service to and from Paris airports. Around town, I usually walk, or ride the bus or metro. The last thing I want to worry about after a long overnight flight is my ground transportation to the city center. Nor do I wish to miss my flight home. In my opinion, a certain, timely ride to and from the airport is worth the extra cost.
Excellent point. Im in at least as to/ from CDG is concerned. In the city, Im not as pressed for schedules. I walk most of the time anyway except for long hauls then I do Metro. Of course this is without major luggage issues.
i use uber all over europe and in paris it is quite efficient. however be careful at the airport, at times it can be difficult to meet up with your driver especially if there are multiple levels or bus lanes, taxi lanes, etc. occasionally you will get a beat up car or a driver who isn’t the best but uber has terrific customer service and usually will re correct fares if your driver messed up or took a poor route. my only advice is to avoid uberpop as i find the quality of the car to be far more variable with this category than with uberx. sometimes you luck out and it ends up being very inexpensive for a nice car though. also it is quite annoying because when i first started using uber in paris there were no surge fares however now i have noticed it happens quite frequently just like in nyc. but if surge pops up just wait a minute and reload, it usually changes quickly.
Excellent info and worthy of remembering for future reference. Many thanks.
We flew out of Paris Friday. Because they were reporting Friday that the mayor of Paris decreed no Uber in response to the strikes Thursday, we took the RER to CDG. I did check my Uber app just to see, and it was showing no availability Friday morning. We did use UberX Wednesday night with no issue. Nice Mercedes. 20 euros from the 10th to the 17th with 1.3x surge pricing.
In Nice on Monday, we used Uber to get to the airport. The driver, a very nice 75-year old, told us that another Nice Uber driver was attacked and badly beaten at Le Meridien Hotel on Saturday night. At the airport we made a big show of saying goodbye like he was a friend.
The situation is interesting. I poked around the web a little to get some background. Apparently, Paris allows only 16,000 taxi licenses for the entire city. It’s this scarcity that explains why it can cost up to 200,000 euros to get a license today. (Taxis drivers who have had licenses for years didn’t pay that.) This also explains why service can be so bad.
we have the exact same situation in NYC - namely, government controls the supply of medallions and this creates a bunch of really bad issues. until uber came along, those medallions were worth north of $1 Million and would mostly be purchased by fleet companies and then the cars are rented out in 12-hour shifts to actual drivers (i’ve heard that those NYC medallions are worth around $300k now, but who knows - certainly less than they were before uber). it seems that in france, it was more typical for regular actual people to purchase these for themselves, like a house, or some other personal large investment. and as here, those licenses are worth a lot less.
i consider myself very progressive and generally liberal, but this was always a terrible way to run a big city taxi system. municipalities should have worked with uber, etc., up front to effectively manage a transition to these types of services (air bnb included).
through that lens, you can see how someone who took out a large loan to buy a taxi permit in paris is pretty pissed off about uber.
Flew out of Nice to Paris and then to LA on Thursday. Pretty wild! Our driver, not Uber was able to get us to about 800 meters of the airport and we walked the rest of the way. We did not encounter any problems but could see some fires in the distance. We did have to get to the airport a bit earlier than we would have liked but our driver felt it was best for him to get us there early before things really escalated. A strange experience, but I felt more sympathy for the people arriving as they had virtually no way to get to their hotels or destinations.
Cheers!
Marshall ![[truce.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/d33e712b50d5efc2425bf219c404fbdb7ed0ba50.gif "truce"){kind=small}
Heads of Uber France and Uber Europe arrested in Paris:
A great example of the strength of the taxi union. I`d vote for them to control the integrity of their members and sanction those who purposely pad the meter like the one in particular that sponsored my post initially. IMHO, our driver performed illegalities and cheated us. That was not the first incident, just the most recent of many.
Cross posted from another thread:
French taxis suck, they deserve it, most drive with GPS anyway IME.
I have more sympathy for the UK drivers who have to spend two years learning ‘the knowledge’ before being able to drive. Still theres room for both, if you want to nip across the West End a black cab will get you there much quicker than Uber, but you will pay more.
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I seek out black cabs in London because they are always the most enjoyable and fastest way to get around. The fact that they can fit a family of 5 with luggage (albeit snugly) is a plus as well. This most recent trip, the driver thanked us for using a black cab, and to seek them out if we enjoyed the ride. Apparently they are also competing with Uber and other cab companies (but somehow resist beating each other up, blocking roads and burning stuff).
Black cabs have an advantage over Uber: they can use the bus/taxi lanes and Uber can’t. Given the congestion in London, that is a big deal. Hailo, the London taxi app, is also a great equalizer (that predates Uber).
Please explain Uber POP vs other Uber options to me. I believe it is only available in Europe, requires fewer qualifications for drivers and is cheaper that UberX et al. I see it has been banned in Germany and perhaps now in France with this latest issue.