Catalan taxi drivers are determined that the central government take advantage of the ruling of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) published the day before yesterday to shield the restrictions on the activity of rental cars with drivers, also known as VTC, and therefore on the apps of Cabify, Uber and Bolt. So on Wednesday they will take Gran Via and Paseo de Grà cia, and if necessary they will redouble this pressure and mount one protest after another until the day of the general elections.
The ruling offers several readings – these resolutions usually leave a wide margin for interpretation – and these days the analyzes are being disparate. In any case, it seems clear that this court understands that the protection of the taxi does not justify the restrictions on VTCs, but it is also true that it considers that care for the environment and the improvement of urban mobility do. “We have the opportunity to close this conflict by relying on the sentence, and also not to leave any loophole for those who want to put an end to the taxi,” says Élite Taxi, the main association of taxi drivers in the metropolitan area.
“Both the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Territory already know that they have to adopt ratios related to pollution, congestion, accidents – Elite Taxi abounds -… In addition, the Ministry must already give powers to autonomies and town halls so that may delimit the offer of transport services with vehicles with up to nine seats for the reasons described by the CJEUâ€.
