Uber shuts Cape Town airport driver waiting area as association asks transport department to step in

Uber has temporarily closed its driver waiting area at Cape Town International Airport, and the Western Cape E-Hailing Association is asking the provincial transport department to intervene, calling the working conditions that followed the closure inhumane.

As eNCA reported on 17 September, the company says the area was shut for safety reasons and that it is talking to stakeholders about a long-term solution.

The waiting area sits on land leased directly to Uber by the Airports Company South Africa, which referred questions about it to the company.

What drivers say has changed

The association says drivers who used the facility now wait for ride requests in high-crime areas, and it names Bishop Lavis as one of them. That is roughly 20 kilometres from the airport, on the other side of the N2 and the R300 from the terminal precinct.

Drivers also say they are still expected to contribute towards the upkeep of a facility they cannot currently use.

The association further accuses Uber of not properly vetting undocumented users on the platform, a complaint that sits alongside the tensions between local and foreign national drivers that preceded the closure.

Most drivers at the site declined to speak on camera, telling eNCA they feared being blocked from the app. That detail matters for anyone trying to understand why a dispute of this size has produced so little public testimony from the people at its centre. In e-hailing work the platform is the workplace, and drivers who rely on it for every rand of income weigh what speaking costs them.

Some operators have moved to alternative e-hailing platforms that continue to accept requests at the airport.

Why the airport matters

Cape Town International is the busiest airport in the Western Cape and one of the busiest in the country, and the e-hailing rank there is one of the most reliable pick-up points a driver can work from. A driver who holds a place in the queue can plan a shift around it. Without the waiting area, the same driver either circles the precinct, parks where parking is allowed and paid for, or waits somewhere cheaper and further away and hopes a request lands before the next one does.

That is the part a passenger will notice first. If drivers are waiting further out, pick-up times at the airport get longer, and the fare quoted on the app has to cover a longer empty run to reach the terminal.

The questions that are still open

Uber has not said how long the closure will last, what specific safety concern prompted it, or what conditions would have to change before the area reopens. The association has not said what form of intervention it wants from the transport department, whether a meeting has been requested, or whether one has been granted. The department has not yet responded publicly to the call.

The airport company’s position is that the site is Uber’s to run, because the lease is with the company and not with Acsa.

What happens next

Uber says it is engaging with stakeholders to find a viable, long-term solution, and the association’s call on the transport department is now on the record. Until the waiting area reopens, drivers who worked from it will keep making the same calculation every shift, and passengers arriving at Cape Town International will keep feeling the result in how long they wait at the kerb.

Source: eNCA, Uber drivers stranded as Cape Town airport waiting area remains closed