Although dealing with a demanding and challenging market with several competitors, companies dedicated to the transportation of people and delivery still visualize multiple opportunities in Costa Rica.
The need to access more efficient mobility, changes in consumption patterns and the upward trend in the introduction of smartphones and the Internet, have created a business scenario in which the demand for mobile platform services dedicated to the transportation of people and home delivery, increases over the years.
In this scenario of changing habits, the company Uber announced that in the Panamanian market it will make available to its customers a new service of sending articles, which will be called Uber Flash.
For more than three months, when the first cases of covid-19 were reported in Panama, the population has been subjected to strict quarantine, which has forced companies to diversify their services.
For the company's directors, the bill that seeks to regulate the operation in Panama generates "more uncertainty and affects the investment of multinational companies.”
The same free market concept that led to a concession of a taximeter plate of almost zero original cost to reach a value of tens of thousands of dollars, must now be applied to the irruption of collaborative transport services.
EDITORIAL
Jorge Cobas González
Founder of CentralAmericaData
Arguing that traditional taxi services and Uber should coexist simultaneously, the government of Costa Rica presented a proposal to regulate the collaborative transport service.
Uber, the computer platform for passenger transportation that has been operating in Costa Rica for more than three years, has faced, as in other markets, the opposition of local taxi drivers, who claim that they compete under unequal conditions.
The Uber technological platform, which in Central America is currently transporting people and food, is planning to expand its service offerings to the freight transport business.
Uber and Uber Eats, platforms for transporting people and delivering prepared food, respectively, are already operating in the countries of the region. However, the U.S. company's new bet for Latin America is to use Uber Freight to transport cargo.
The implementation of two applications used for home delivery services in Guatemala reinforces the irreversible trend towards better use of available resources through innovation and technology.
One of the applications now available is Uber Eats, which lets people place orders from different restaurants with varied prices.Another of the companies that has started up is Glovo, dedicated to the purchase, reception and shipping of several product categories.
Six months after the vice president of El Salvador himself welcomed the company into the country, the transport authorities now say the service is illegal and intend to suspend it.
The Deputy Minister of Transportation, Nelson García, warned that they will start to fine and confiscate vehicles that are providing private transport services via the application, because it is considered illegal in the country.
The new regulation for the transport technology platform establishes that the service can be provided exclusively in the provinces of Panama Oeste, Panamá, Colón and Coclé.
From a statement issued by the Presidency of Panama:
Drivers working with transportation technology platforms must be over 21 years of age and have a Type E1 license, issued by the Transit and Land Transportation Authority (ATTT).
In El Salvador reform of legislation on passenger transport has been proposed to "incorporate business models based on new telecommunications technologies."
From a report by the Superintendency of Competition in El Salvador:
The Board of Directors of theSuperintendency of Competition(CD) issued an opinion on land transport regulations, in relation to the provision of passenger transport services required by users through the use of digital platforms.
In Costa Rica a hotel entrepreneur is confronting the Solis government, after it warned that companies carrying out commercial promotions in alliance with Uber will be penalized.
EDITORIAL
Can it be that businesspeople in Costa Rica nowhave to consult the government to validate their marketing plans and strategies for their products and services?
The Varela administration has announced that it will be working on the creation and implementation of a legal framework for the operation of transportation technology platforms such as Uber.
From a statement issued by the Presidency of Panama:
The Cabinet Council has recognized the need to regulate the transport service offered through technological platforms, which is covered by the current e-commerce provisions and is an economic activity that must be regulated under the land transport law.
While Costa Rica still has not defined a legal scheme to regulate the mode of transport offered by Uber, in El Salvador the company has started operations with the government´s approval.
The technology company that offers a private transportation network started operating in San Salvador on May 9, with the backing of the Sánchez Cerén administration.
Guatemala's taxi companies reacted to UBER's threat as any good entrepreneur does: innovating in order to improve and be more competitive.
In other countries taxi drivers are trying to resist the progress that the collaborative economy represents for users, relying on alleged"acquired rights"with the complicity of inefficient governments. In Guatemala, taxi companies have united and launched mobile applications that make life easier for their users.
In addition to revolutionizing the concept of transport in cities, Uber is also an example of how trends in price management are changing within companies.
The processes and methods followed by businesses to determine the sales prices of their goods and services are changing as fast as the tastes and preferences of consumers. Products whose prices often vary after a few hours, and "custom" prices are some of the new trends that companies are now following when setting prices. As Ariel Baños explains, the controversial and revolutionary company Uber is a very good example of new ways to set prices today.
Recognized Brazilian company of backhoe loaders, telescopic, articulated and other types of cranes looking for companies interested in representing the brand and distributing their machinery in Central America and Mexico. The company manufactures and sells telescopic,...