While regulators in several other countries continue to shun Uber and its peers, SA’s department of transport is taking a more accommodating approach — it is formalising the regulation of these e-hailing service providers. Parliament is deliberating on the National Land Transport Amendment Bill, which includes provisions for app-based services such as Uber and Taxify for the first time. "The definition of metered taxi services has been expanded in the amendment bill to include electronic-hailing applications or similar technology," a spokesman for the department says. Uber has not been so fortunate in other markets. London stripped it of its licence a few months ago, and Uber has been forced to retreat from some US cities, as well as from Bulgaria, Denmark and other countries. Its exit has often followed lobbying from metered-taxi groups, who argue that Uber does not play by the same rules they do. Uber was also on relatively shaky ground in SA in the early days, following its launc...
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