Tag Archives | taxi driver

Uber and Careem No Longer Allowed to Pick Up Passengers from Beirut Airport

By Rami on April 4, 2019 in Beirut, Transportation, What the fuck!

Several news websites reported last week that a new decision (number 1/247) was issued by the Minister of Transport that aims to organize the operation of Taxi cabs at the airport, an urged taxi drivers to abide with it as of the first of April. No details were provided about that decision and the ministry website didn’t have any information, so it all sounded vague.

A few days later I started hearing about people arriving to Beirut Airport not being able to meet their designated drivers at the exit and I just made sure yesterday it was because of that decision.

A friend of mine arrived last night and tried to use Careem, but a few minutes later the driver called and told him he can no longer go beyond the army check point (around 700m away from the airport entrance), and that he should meet him there to pick him up. With too much distance to walk, my friend decided to simply cancel the ride and book one of the official airport taxi cars, except that they told him it will cost “around $50” to drive him to Dekwane which is ridiculously exorbitant, so he just said thanks and called one of his relatives to come take him instead.

So whatever that decision states, it essentially no longer allows taxi river to pick up their arriving passengers from the parking lot as before in order to force people to use the official airport taxi drivers who are infamous for charging very high amount for a few kilometers rides. Therefore, in case you are arriving to Beirut anytime soon, make sure to arrange for a friend or relative to pick you up if you don’t want to bear unnecessary charges.

Keep in mind that our so called tourism season should start in a few weeks from now, and this decision is basically the best way to kick it off!

Update (April 5th 2019):

Private taxi companies can pick up passengers from the airport only if they apply for a special permit from the syndicate of Lebanese taxi drivers for every ride they want to make.

The permit should include the passengers name along with their flight details in order not to be used more than once.

Update 2 (April 5th 2019):

Minister of Transportation Youssef Fenianos just reversed his decision, so taxi drivers can pick up incoming passengers from the parking lot just like before.

Should Uber Be Blamed For Rebecca Dykes Murder?

By Rami on December 21, 2017 in Transportation

I kept following the news and what people wrote on blogs and social media over the last few days about the murder of Rebecca Dykes on Friday night, and I found it quite astonishing how almost everybody was steering the conversation from Uber’s lack of responsibility to blaming the murder on our sexist culture.

I do acknowledge that we have a problem in our Lebanese society. Some women are exposed to domestic violence, others suffer from sexual harassment… but whether you like it or not this is unfortunately part of life and nothing is going to change overnight, just like you can’t expect gun violence to suddenly end in the US. Small progress however is being made thanks to the efforts of NGOs like Abaad and Kafa for example.

Still, the problem with the case of Rebecca Dykes doesn’t only lie in our culture which looks down on women, but also in the fact that Uber massively fucked up by allowing a driver with a criminal record to join their platform while people usually opt to use their service to feel in safer hands.

According to Uber’s webite, a clean Judicial Record is a minimum requirements for those who want to drive for them. Therefore, this incident could have been avoided if someone did their job right by rejecting this driver from getting on board… And to make things worse, they didn’t even issue a public statement to at least condemn the crime or apologize for the violation they did. On the other hand, when you visit their Facebook page, you ironically get greeted by an image with the tag line “Cheers to Safer Nightlife”. RIGHT!!!

Uber also had a similar problem in UK earlier this year by the way and were stripped of their licence in London for failure to report criminal offenses and lack of performing driver background checks. So it’s only logical to hold them accountable for doing the same here as well, in hope of at least getting a straight explanation about what went wrong on their side.

Update:

Uber reached out to me to give their side and below is what they wrote:

“All drivers that use the Uber app in Lebanon are fully licensed by the government and must have a clear judicial record.“ – Uber spokesperson

We can confirm that the driver arrested for this horrific attack had a clean background check and all the correct government permits.

We are in close contact with the authorities and we’re assisting their investigation in any way we can.

Confessions of Lebanese taxi driver

By Rami on March 9, 2012 in Funny

Here’s one epic taxi driver. In just less than 30 seconds he managed to tell two Norwegian actors about his dream, almost crash into another car, and of course curse at the other driver!

The two actors are actually Jorgen and Matias, who over a period of 3 weeks shot a web series of 14 episodes while walking across Lebanon from north to south, and in each episode they chose to walk for a different cause, thus the name of series “Walk of Causes”. You may check the series website here, and their blog here.

Taxi El-Balad

By Rami on February 24, 2012 in Lebanon

Yet another Lebanese movie!

On his 36th birthday, the underachieving Youssef finds himself alienated from his friends and family for being single, penniless and with no ambition; he leaves his small town and moves to Beirut to start anew. While living out of his car, relying on both his quick wit and a bulletproof
business plan, he obsesses about becoming the greatest taxi driver in
the city.

Prowling the streets at night in his impeccable 1966 Benz, he meets Jordan, a bored American pilates instructor working at a twenty four hour gym with no customers; both disillusioned with their careers and sharing a similar dissatisfaction with their personal lives, they form an unlikely bond. With his passion for telling stories of a past time, and her desire to hear them, together they cruise through the back alleys of Beirut celebrating hope, resilience, and the healing powers of storytelling.

Taxi El-Balad is coming to theaters on March 8 2012.

Captured on camera: Lebanese cop beating a taxi driver

By Rami on October 2, 2010 in Lebanon

A lot of people often claim that Lebanese cops only use force with the poor people who are not backed up by anyone. The video below just proves it…

I wonder how would the cop have acted if the same driver was riding a 2010 Mercedes/BMW with a black number plate.

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