Taxi strike ends in Barcelona but Uber and Cabify unhappy with new rules
Thursday, January 24, 2019 @ 12:59 PM
TAXI drivers in Barcelona returned to work at 06.00 this morning (Thursday) after the city's 5,000 drivers voted on proposals by Catalunya's regional government to restrict Uber and Cabify services in the city.
A majority of the 5,000 who dropped their ballots into a box outside in the Plaza de Catalunya in an eleventh-hour vote that ended at 23.20 last night agreed to measures that include a compulsory minimum of one hour for contracting an Uber or Cabify car before its arrival, and for geo-tagging of these vehicles to be eliminated so potential passengers would not be able to locate their nearest one, and would have to wait for the one they had booked at least an hour earlier.
Regional government officials initially proposed a minimum booking time of 15 minutes, and threatened to enshrine it in law if taxi drivers did not end their strike, but eventually relented and increased it to one hour.
Madrid's mayor Ángel Garrido says he is not prepared to issue the same type of bye-law, nor include these measures in regional law, since he has no desire to 'legislate against the presence' of Uber and Cabify cars in the city.
As a result, the taxi strike in Madrid remains in place, causing upheaval for many of the quarter of a million visitors to the massive international tourism trade fair FITUR which opened yesterday.
Uber and Cabify spokespersons say they are not happy with Barcelona's new ruling, and Uber has announced plans to stop operating in the city – and although Cabify may follow suit, it has not made any firm decisions.
Uber's representative Eduardo Martín says a minimum of an hour's pre-booking would 'effectively mean the end' of the service, and that it was 'a stupid idea'.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com