Nationwide Uber and Bolt drivers strike – April 7, 2025

Will you catch an Uber or Bolt on April 7 ? That day, drivers of popular transportation apps are announcing a nationwide strike. Initiated by Ukrainian driver Serhiy Mykhailiuk (known from TikTok as " piwko_nie_można "), the protest aims to draw attention to unfair - according to drivers - terms of cooperation with platforms such as Uber , Bolt and FreeNow .

1. Who is protesting and why?

2. What will the strike look like?

3. Economic and legal background

Who is protesting and why?

The strike is grassroots. It is not supported by any official union organization, but by an online community of drivers who actively communicate in closed groups on Telegram. One of them already has over 600 participants .

Importantly, drivers are coming together on their own, without the support of formal structures, which shows the scale of dissatisfaction.

The main demand? Lower commissions for transport platforms. As the initiator of the protest himself says, companies like Uber and Bolt take as much as 30-50% of each fare from drivers.

Although customers are paying more and more, drivers are getting less and less. To make matters worse, passenger rates have recently been reduced, which has further worsened the financial situation of carriers.

The strikers are demanding not only lower commissions, but also greater transparency in setting tariffs and terms of cooperation.

"We have to dictate the terms, not be the ones who adapt. Without us, they earn nothing," Mykhailiuk explains.

Drivers oppose unilateral decisions of the app, e.g. sudden changes in tariffs.

What will the strike look like?

The strike will last around the clock – drivers have announced that they will not be running any rides from the morning of April 7 and will be shutting down their apps. There are no roadblocks or demonstrations planned – this is a silent but economically noticeable protest. This is a form of economic pressure by cutting off the platforms from profits.

The campaign is to cover all of Poland . Announcements have already appeared in Warsaw , Krakow, Poznan, Tricity and other larger cities. In Poznan, drivers will meet together at 1:00 p.m. at Dworcowa Street.

Several hundred active participants have already signed up for the strike, and their number is still growing. The organizers were counting on many drivers to join spontaneously.

It is worth adding that some fleet partners also expressed solidarity with the protesters. Some of them declared that they would not charge car rental fees that day from drivers who decide to go on strike.

Economic and legal background

The protest comes at a time of rising living costs. Inflation, fuel and car maintenance prices are rising, and drivers are not guaranteed a minimum income. Most are self-employed, dependent on the app's decisions.

Although transport via apps has been legal in Poland since 2020 (drivers must have a taxi license and a cash register ), this does not mean fair conditions of cooperation.

Platforms like Uber and Bolt impose conditions on drivers unilaterally. Despite legal regulations, they still dominate the market, using their advantage over a dispersed group of collaborators. They have not yet officially responded to the protest announcements.

The Wider Context: Protests Across Europe

The strike in Poland is not an isolated incident. In recent years, similar demonstrations have taken place in France, Spain , Italy , Romania, Greece and Germany . The common denominator was the opposition to the expansion of ride-sharing platforms and increasingly difficult working conditions in the profession of driver or taxi driver.

In France, for example, in December 2024, taxi drivers blocked the center of Paris in protest against government plans to cut reimbursements for patient transport.

In Spain, in January 2023, thousands of taxi drivers marched through the streets of Barcelona to protest the illegal activities of VTC drivers. Similar demonstrations took place in Rome, Bucharest, Athens and even at the Brussels airport.

The protests were often wide-ranging and had a real impact on government decisions and the public debate on the future of urban transport.

Will the Polish strike on April 7 have a similar impact ? It is worth watching closely how the industry, passengers and the platforms themselves react that day.

Perhaps this is just the beginning of a more serious change in the transport market in Poland.