By Vassilis Kostoulas
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High-flying Uber, the app-based international services company that uses private drivers linked by its hand-held technology, has arrived in Greece and wants to expand.
Faced with the now ubiquitous protests from professional drivers and deliverymen in other locations were the San Francisco-based company operates, Uber's "point man" in the country attempted to deflect the expected reaction from local interests.
In an interview with "N" this week, the Uber general director for Greece, Manolis Manassakis, emphasized that Greece's "taxi drivers are not our competitors, but our partners."
Manassakis said the model employed by high-tech company, which specializes in transportation services, aims to lower prices, increase profits and to expand the overall "pie".
He also defended the company, which has increasingly come under scrutiny by tax services in several countries, saying Uber "is not a problem but a solution to tax evasion".
For its debut in Greece, where tourism arrivals continue to increase, he said two services will be available: UberTaxi, which employs traditional cabs, and UberX, which relies on private vehicles and drivers that are affiliated by licensed tourism-related enterprises.
Moreover, he said the Uber service that has generated the biggest reaction and legal actions overseas, UberPop, which relies on drivers with private vehicles, will not be available in Greece.
