Some Montreal taxi drivers conducted an experiment on Uber drivers and found many of them took cash for rides - illegal under the current pilot project for the ride-sharing service.
Hassan Kattoua, a cabbie known for his activism against Uber, led the initiative that had taxi drivers hailing Uber rides from the airport to downtown and then paying, not with the online app and credit cards, but with cash - a way to avoid paying government taxes and company fees.
Kattoua said many drivers would also hand over their phone number for future rides.
He claims only about 10% stuck to the rules while the others,
"Some of them automatically said, $30, $40, $60, whatever, they would give me a price," said Kattoua in an interview with CJAD 800 News.
Kattoua said this shows the pilot project isn't working. The 14-year veteran taxi driver said if Uber is here to stay, the Quebec government needs to compensate cabbies for the loss of value of their taxi permits.
"Now how could you control the thousands and thousands of Uber drivers, that they will just do pickups on the street or they will exchange their number with their clients?" said Kattoua.
Uber said in a statement that this is only a small minority of drivers but that they're taking it very seriously and working on putting a stop to it.