GetTaxi pans racist customer
After anti-Arab Facebook comment, taxi order service tells woman it’s not interested in her business
Israeli startup GetTaxi, which runs a successful smartphone-based taxi ordering service, responded to a customer’s outrage on social media over its use of Arab drivers by advising her to take her business elsewhere.
The customer, Yael Mahvov, posted a racist rant on a popular Israeli Facebook group for viral internet content, saying “I am a regular customer of GetTaxi, but I stopped, every driver lately has been Arab!!! As if there is a shortage of Jewish drivers. You’ll lose. Amen!!!!”
Although one or two users appeared to agree with Mahvov’s sentiments, the majority voiced objection to her remarks.
Among the respondents to Mahvov’s post was GetTaxi’s official page, which strongly condemned her comment hours after it was posted.
“Yael, we are a company that respects every human being. As you know, there is a law in Israel that forbids discrimination against people based on any parameter, including their religion and ethnicity. We assess each of our drivers on the values of our company (reliability, service, etc), and not on his/her origin,” the company wrote.
“Your racist comment was out of line. However, if that’s how you feel, you are more than welcome to forgo our services. During times like these we need to promote dialogue and tolerance — not racism,” the statement said.
GetTaxi employs some 3,500 taxi drivers in Israel, according to company figures. GetTaxi said it doesn’t intend to cave into the demands of customers like Mahvov, and emphasized that it hires employees from all walks of life and ethnicities.
