Taxi drivers’ protests have now ended
Taxi drivers had been protesting since last Wednesday. Now that regulators decided to transfer certain responsibilities to city halls, taxi drivers have decided to stop their demonstrations.
The Portuguese taxi associations have decided to disband their protests in Lisbon, Porto and Faro against electronic ride-hailing Apps, after the Socialist government proposed to transfer regulation to the local authorities.
“We have always said that responsibility for setting the number of all kinds of (taxi and ride-hailing) vehicles should be transferred to the town halls”, Carlos Ramos told reporters.
The leader of the Portuguese Taxi Federation, who was speaking after a meeting with the Socialist parliamentary group, explained that the measures were not part of the modernisation of the sector but of the decentralisation of responsibilities to the local authorities.
The leader of light vehicle transporters’ association (ANTRAL), Florêncio Almeida, acknowledged it was “a very sad day” but that he was happy to be able to show “the whole of Portugal” that the ‘class’ does not correspond to its bad image.
Despite the call to disband, some taxi drivers in Praça dos Restauradores, in Lisbon, and Avenida dos Aliados, in Porto were against the end of the protest.
“We are worse off than when we arrived here”, one driver grumbled in Porto.
Addressing parliament on Wednesday, the prime minister listed a “series of exclusive rights” that benefit taxi drivers but not the drivers of the ride-hailing Apps: lower car tax, lower road tax, deduction of VAT on repair bills, deduction of VAT on diesel, specific support to renew the vehicles, taxi ranks and access to the bus lanes.
The taxi drivers had been protesting since 19 September against a new law that governs the electronic ride-hailing Apps in Portugal – Uber, Taxify, Cabify and Chauffeur Privé.
Source: Lusa
