Paper short abstract:

Using actor theory and action resources, this paper discusses the reactions and action resources of actors in the local taxi industry in Abidjan to the emergence of e-hailing applications that disrupt the taxi industry in Abidjan.

Paper long abstract:

The emergence of e-hailing platforms in African cities has disrupted the local taxi industries. These transformations are taking place in a context where the taxi industries themselves in African cities are failing to provide a quality transport service to city dwellers. The local taxi industry perceives this as unfair and unfair competition. How do local taxi industry stakeholders (drivers, car owners, unions, owner and driver associations, regulators) react to the emergence of e-hailing platforms and what resources do they mobilise? Abidjan, where there is a taxi industry embedded in both the political and transport landscape, and where Uber and Yango offer their services, is used as the field. This work is based on first-hand data collected between April and May 2022 from different categories of actors: VTC companies, local taxi drivers' associations and unions, and regulators (AMUGA, Ministry of Transport, transport department of the autonomous district of Abidjan). The results reveal that all the actors in the industry have regulated in a differentiated way according to the political (mobilisation), technological (implementation of an application, adoption of mobile money), relational (network of relations with politicians) and material (renewal of the vehicle fleet) resources available to them with the aim of ensuring the sustainability of an industry that suffers from service gaps.