By A'laa Koddous Allah Cairo, April 18, 2018 - Recently, the Administrative Court of Justice issued a ruling suspending the activities of application based transport companies in Egypt, sparking a public controversy. Uber and Careem for example, are popular transport companies. They depend on a Global Positioning System (GPS) application for moving people from one place to another. "I depend on Uber and Careem to go every where," Salma Mohamed, a mother of two children, said. "I use them every day to take my children to and from their nursery." She said she has no car and is living in a new place that has no transport yet. These two firms are her only available means of transport. "For me they are safer than the taxis as I can see the name of the driver, the colour and number of his car, as well as the fare to be paid, before l leave home," she said. "Frankly, I prefer to use these firms rather than a taxi." "If we don't have these two companies, it will be a big problem for me," she said. "It will mean that I should stay at home until I have a car." In a brief statement on its official Facebook page, Careem said that it was continuing its normal work as it had not been officially informed of the suspension. Abdel Lateif Waked, the General Manager of Uber, told a local newspaper, that they respect the Egyptian judiciary and will not comment on the judicial proceedings. The case is still being deliberated. "The company didn't tell us to stop," Hassan Ali, an Uber driver, told the Egyptian Mail. "We are working normally and waiting for the procedures to finish. Then we will know the final result." Ali, a graduate of the Faculty of Commerce, said that he had been working with Uber for about two years. He had previously worked in a private company which, due to some financial problems, had made him and some of his colleagues redundant. So, he had resorted to Uber. "I'm working in my own car and I earn good money every day," he said. "Uber and Careem are serving people who really don't want to use public transport or taxis. "Many people prefer to pay more to have an excellent service rather than pay less for only a fair service. They prefer to be sure a car is waiting for them to take them where they want to go and also a car with air conditioning that works." He said that these options are not found in the white taxis. To take a taxi, people must go into the street first and then wait for a taxi to appear and not any taxi will agree to take them to where they want to go. Besides the air conditioner does not always work. So, they prefer to use Uber and Careem. The taxi drivers have now announced that they will develop their services to keep abreast of Uber and Careem so as to satisfy customers and encourage them to use taxis. Alaa El-Din Mohamed, Secretary of the Taxi Drivers Union said that they will develop their performance via a new ‘application.' "We will also apply a new system for the taxi drivers. They will stand in a parking lot and move out in turn."
