Uber says Salam to Baku
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan will now enjoy services of the very popular taxi service Uber in the capital city - Baku.
The Uber blog reported on April 23, that the company entered the Baku market.
The American international company Uber was founded in 2009. Its mobile app allows to search, book and pay for a taxi. By this March, the service has been made available in 55 countries and over 200 cities worldwide.
“UBER is coming to Baku to help you catch the rhythm of this city. We bring shiny, lux and business class cars to you with the UberBLACK service line,” the company’s Baku blog said.
The company started its operation in Baku with premium Uber Black, which includes only business class cars - Mercedes, Audi, BMW and similar brands.
To use the service, customers must install the Uber application on their smartphone.
Prices for using the UberBLACK service will be of minimum value of 5 manats ($4.7). The order of a car costs 2 manats, and each kilometer is charged at 0.9 manats, and a minute of downtime is charged at 0.2 manats.
One of the important features of the service is the possibility to pay by credit card.
The company entered the European market last year and attracted a lot of criticism from taxi drivers over claims of unfair competition. The European authorities intend to centrally regulate the operations of Uber and other similar services, after conflict situations and ambiguous reactions from the public in many EU countries.
In Azerbaijan Uber entered the list of many taxi companies, including Baku Taxi Company that employs famous London Taxi TX4 cars, available at phone number 9000, Taxi 189 at 189, Felix taxi at 5959, etc.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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