Uber Is Now in Tulum, Competing With the Taxis and Recruiting Them To

Uber in Tulum launched as a service on October 20, when the ride-hailing company began accepting trips in Tulum and Playa del Carmen, with opening promotions that included rides at no cost.

The launch, reported that day by Uno TV and Excélsior, brings Uber's Quintana Roo operation down the coast from Cancún. A second phase is already being staffed. On October 14, El Heraldo de México reported that Uber had opened driver registration in both cities for Uber Taxi, which sends app requests to traditional cabs, and for Uber Moto, which puts passengers on the back of a motorcycle.

That second phase is when the story moves beyond the opening week. Riders in Tulum now have one more fare to set against the price a driver quotes at the curb, and the town's cab drivers face a company that wants them as both rivals and recruits.

Zero-peso trips on the first day of Uber in Tulum

The free rides were the draw. Fátima Vázquez, whose launch-day reporting ran in both Uno TV and Excélsior, wrote that trips showing at zero pesos were for now the main attraction for users, and that it remained to be seen how long the promotion would last and what regular fares would look like once it ended.

Residents she spoke with welcomed the option. Mayra Canul, who lives in Tulum, said cheaper fares are an advantage for people who have to get around town. Mauricio Morales, a local merchant, framed it as a matter of markets.

"Competition is always healthy in markets."

Morales was speaking to Excélsior in Spanish, and the wording above is a translation.

DiDi was already undercutting the cab to the ruins

Tulum had an app on its streets before Uber arrived. Morales said DiDi was already operating in town and charged between 60 and 80 pesos, about 3 to 4 dollars, for a trip from the town center to the archaeological zone. A taxi on the same run, he said, could charge 150 to 200 pesos, roughly 8 to 11 dollars.

Those are one merchant's figures for one route, not a published tariff. Excélsior described transport costs as a constant source of discontent in both destinations, a frustration The Tulum Times traced earlier in its report on the phrase "No Uber, no tourism".

An hour at the stand without a fare

Behind the wheel, the arrival landed differently.

Brigadier Hernández, a driver with the Tiburones del Caribe taxi union in Tulum, told Uno TV that the sector was already facing hard times for lack of passengers.

"It is affecting all of us as taxi drivers, it is affecting us a lot."

He had gone about an hour without picking up a single fare when he spoke with the reporter, and he said more platforms would cut even deeper into earnings for drivers who depend on every trip. His words, too, were translated from Spanish.

Uber Taxi would bring union cabs into the app

El Heraldo's account shows Uber courting the same drivers it competes with.

Registration runs through the Uber Driver app and is open to traditional taxi drivers and to motorcyclists, including those who work on their own. According to the company announcement the outlet cited, taxi drivers who complete 10 trips receive an extra 2,000 pesos and motorcyclists who complete five receive 1,000, with referral bonuses on top.

Uber Taxi allows a passenger to call a traditional cab by phone. Uber Moto books a motorcycle ride the same way, which El Heraldo presented as an option for workers, students and anyone for whom travel time is the deciding factor.

Cancún's long conflict ended with taxis on the platform

The model has a local precedent, and it took years to build. Uber arrived in Cancún on September 14, 2016, and its entry set off blockades, confrontations and hundreds of amparo suits from traditional transport operators, El Heraldo reported.

In January 2023, a federal court in Cancún ruled that Uber did not need a public transport concession to operate in Quintana Roo, a decision reported at the time to also cover Playa del Carmen and Tulum. The same report noted that the state's mobility law would need to change before the app could actually roll out.

The settlement came in December 2023, in an agreement mediated by the state government that El Heraldo described as ending six years of conflict. More than 2,200 drivers from Cancún's Andrés Quintana Roo union now work through the app, out of a pool of 12,000 operators and 8,600 concessions, by the outlet's count. Uber reports more than 180,000 weekly queries in its Cancún app alone, 73,000 from domestic tourists and 9,000 from foreign visitors.

The company estimates a potential market of at least 9,000 taxis between Cancún and Playa del Carmen, without counting Puerto Morelos. Tulum is not part of that figure.

Playa del Carmen's Lázaro Cárdenas del Río union runs 3,000 cabs

The recruiting drive is already being advertised in Playa del Carmen, where the Sindicato Lázaro Cárdenas del Río operates more than 3,000 units, according to El Heraldo. In both municipalities, the outlet added, the taxi unions had not confirmed any arrangement for Uber to operate, and nothing guaranteed that cab drivers and platform drivers would avoid conflict.

The fare Uber will charge once the promotion ends

Two answers will shape what Uber becomes in Tulum, and the launch-day reporting carried neither. There was no end date for the zero-peso promotion and no regular fare for the run from the town center to the beach or the ruins. There was also no word from Tiburones del Caribe on whether its drivers would take the company's offer and switch to Uber Taxi.

In Cancún, the taxi unions gave their answer in December 2023, seven years after the first Uber car pulled onto the hotel zone's streets.

Once the free rides end, would you choose Uber over a Tulum taxi, or wait to see whether local cabs join the app? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.