According to Chile’s National Registry of Personal Transport, there are 48,846 taxis operating actively across the country. In comparison, between Uber and Cabify, there are over 95 thousand active drivers in Chile.
More than a third of these drivers operate full-time and maintain a salary of around US$2500 a month (CLP$1.5M). In fact, these two applications are so significant in terms of job creation that eliminating them would raise the unemployment rate from 6.5% to above 7%, reports El Mercurio.
Said Cecilia Cifuentes, Executive Director of the Business School of Universidad de los Andes, in the original El Mercurio article:
“These two applications are the clearest demonstration that information technology is beneficial, for consumers and for workers. It has created new jobs that really benefit the consumer, because the service is better than a taxi, and cheaper, and it is also a job that has a lot of benefits for the worker, because it is flexible, and for a non-skilled job, it pays relatively well.”
Instead of banning the service, Chile is in the process of regulating ride-sharing through the “Uber Law,” which is being debated currently by the Transport Commission of the House of Representatives.
Read the original article in El Mercurio here.
Brazil recently backed a similar law; read more in The Financial Times.
