The council is carrying out a consultation exercise before it makes a decision on the over provision cap.
Currently, there is a limit of 1420 taxis and 3450 private hire cars operating in Glasgow.
The private hire cap has been reached and there are 1238 taxis on the road.
Councillors are responding to calls from nighttime economy businesses running bars, restaurants, and clubs and the Chamber of Commerce through the city centre taskforce who said a lack of cars is a deterrent to people coming into town.
Uber said there is a huge number of people who they are unable to reach because they can’t take on more drivers.
Matt Freckelton, Uber’s Head of Cities in the UK, said: “We are advocating for the removal of the cap.
“Glasgow is the only city in Scotland which has implemented a cap in recent years. Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have looked into caps by running unmet demand surveys.
“The reason we’re having this consultation is because of the negative economic impacts it’s had on the city and the council has now realised that, yes, we do need to look and review this again.
“And you’ve only got to go talk to other key stakeholders, the Chamber of Commerce, owners of nightclubs who are saying at certain times of the day when the public transit system has shut down or is shutting down, so buses, trains underground, they would be concerned about getting into Glasgow if they then couldn’t get out of Glasgow. “
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Uber, which has a presence in more than 70 countries and 15,000 cities, has been in Glasgow since 2015 and wants to grow its operation.
The cap prevents any more cars being licensed and the firm said it could have hundreds more on their books if it were removed.
Uber said there are certain locations where the problem is most acute.
Mr Freckelton said: “To give you an example, across the two (city centre) railway stations in Glasgow last year, we had tens of thousands of unfulfilled trips that we could not meet because of the cap.
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“And at certain times of the day, specifically the nighttime economy, wait times for one of our vehicles can be 200% higher when compared to Manchester and Edinburgh, and we take those two cities specifically because that’s what Glasgow City Council benchmarks itself.
“And the same goes with the SEC. As well, near Scotland’s largest exhibition centre, again in 2024 we had thousands and thousands of unfulfilled trip requests, and these are going to be from people who are probably mainly coming to Glasgow from the outside.
“And I think that what we don’t want is their first experience of trying to navigate around Glasgow is a long wait time for a private hire car.”
Scottish Private Hire Association (SPHA), which believes an oversaturated market will lead to drivers “being forced to work more and more hours” to make a living, raising safety concerns.
It has said that the problem is not a lack of cars but a lack of customers, leaving drivers unable to make a decent living.
The survey via the consultation hub on the council’s website is available through this link www.glasgow.gov.uk/consultations
The consultation is open now.
