Taxi drivers from across the metropolitan area will take to the center of Barcelona next Tuesday morning. The threat of chaos once again looms over the city.
These taxi drivers understand that the Generalitat is opening the door for many rental car licenses with drivers, also known as VTCs, in operation in other Catalan towns to be able to work in the capital in the near future, and that in this way the large digital platforms that operate in the city, if Cabify, Uber and Bolt find new drivers willing to work with their applications and give them competition that taxi drivers describe as illegal.
In reality, this conflict has been brewing for months, since the Government now in office began processing the new taxi law. But the trigger for this latest attack by Élite Taxi was the protest orchestrated by Cabify this Wednesday in front of Sants station.
Then the Spanish multinational planted some 200 purple suitcases in Països Catalans square to denounce that the administration’s restrictions on its activity condemn many travelers to having to endure very long queues when leaving key infrastructures, in the case of Sants or the own airport.
It only took a few seconds for Alberto Álvarez, alias Tito, from Élite Taxi, to get his blood boiling. “The platforms are making fun of the institutions. Through their Cabify, Uber and Bolt applications they are facilitating the work of a lot of cars that break the rules, which are not authorized to provide services in the metropolitan area. And on top of that, the new taxi law still being processed opens the doors for licenses in operation in other locations to then also operate in Barcelona.”
”We know that numerous companies are already requesting urban authorizations to operate in cities such as Tarragona or Girona, and also in small municipalities – added Álvarez – hoping to later enter Barcelona through the back door thanks to the regional authorizations already provided for in the future law. of the taxi. We demand a decree that prevents it. They actually promised us a long time ago. “At the moment the Parliament is stopped, but this does not stop the processing of decrees.”
Elite Taxi also demands that Cabify, Uber and Bolt be considered as transportation operators, and not as until now as mere intermediaries that simply market software, since their applications determine such important issues of the service as their rates. These are issues that have been on the table for months, and now they seem like quite the hot potato.
Once again citizens find themselves in the trenches of the taxi war. Few details are still known about this Tuesday’s protest. Elite Taxi calls on all taxi drivers to gather next to the Venetian towers around ten in the morning on Tuesday, and then head towards the center.
