Original article: https://cb.pr/conductor-de-uber-teme-por-su-vida/
It is no secret that between the Puertorican taxi organization and the newly arrived Uber there is enormous rivalry.
Neither is that said rivalry has become violent. José Cordero, an Uber driver who gave an interview about one of his first trips to Caribbean Business (CB), shared that, hours after that interview, he had a close encounter with several local taxi drivers.
Throughout his testimony Cordero stated that if “these situations did not stop from happening, I will have no choice but to stop working for the company”.
He also shared how his wife and children had repeatedly shared their concern for him, which goes as far as to beg him to leave his job because they feared for his life.
Early on Wednesday morning, at around 12:15am, Cordero was on his way to drop off two ladies at the San Juan Hotel. In order to avoid disputes and problems with any taxi drivers, Cordero suggested that he should best drop them off at a restaurant located across the street. Both passengers agreed and he proceeded to park and help the ladies with their luggage, as he usually did.
"I took a look around before I drove off and everything seemed calm" José shared with CB. However, as soon as he started driving, a white bus with a taxi sign began driving behind him suspiciously, following him on his exact route to the airport.
Suddenly, the bus made a turn and drove in another direction, which allowed José to make a U and navigate trhough Isla Verde Avenue in search of passengers. He didn’t give much thought to what just happened, but his worries increased when he realized that a similar bus rode past him through the right lane, sped up and drove in front of him. He decided to stop as the bus slowed down, and as he looked through his rear-view mirror, another taxi rode towards him at an increasing speed.
“Having learned of so many situations and known of so many violent encounters between taxi drivers and Uber drivers… my reaction was to flee at high speed. Both vehicles are following me relentlessly”, Cordero continued.
Despite his despair, José managed to spot a supermarket and parked in front of its entrance, which was well lit. The two vehicles chasing him entered the parking lot and parked a few feet away from the Uber driver. José at this moment shared that this was when they were joined by a third taxi.
Fearing for his safety, José remained inside his car and decided to report what was happening. He called Uber’s emergency system and managed to reach Hansel Borges, who took his information and urged him to call the police. An officer took his information and told him to stay where he was. José called Borges again and, as he was talking to him, “a man of dubious provenance, thin, wearing a faint purple shirt approached my car with a cell phone in his hand”.
The man, seeing that José began to circle in the parking lot, went on to take pictures of what José believes to be the plate of his own vehicle. Then the man suddenly ran back to his car and drove east, followed by the other taxi drivers. Minutes later police officers arrived and José told them what had happened.
On the other hand, José shares that he thought “it was curious that even though the police sargeant told me that they knew who the taxi drivers were… he made a series of recommendations and gave me tips so I could avoid this kind of situation”. Cordero also stressed that the agents asked him to understand the situation, as the local government was unfair to the island’s taxi corporation.
According to José, the agent who led the conversation urged him to stay away from the area of Condado, Isla Verde and the International Airport, as these were areas that “taxi drivers dominated because those are tourist areas… Uber drivers were better off staying in areas other than those unofficially taxi driver territory”.
Foto por Rafelli González