Just one week after thousands of taxi drivers brought Barcelona to a standstill in a go-slow protest against the « abuse of insurers » and « illegal VTCs », a new demonstration will now be held.
A total of 900 taxi drivers in Barcelona, according to the Urban Guard, and 3,000 according to Elite Taxi, blocked the Ronda de Dalt and the Ronda Litoral with a slow march last Wednesday (January 29). It started just after 10am from Terminals 1 and 2 of Barcelona Airport and ended at around 3.20 pm.
The spokesman for Elite Taxi Barcelona, Tito Álvarez, announced that they will start a wave of mobilisations. The date for the next protest is set for next next Tuesday (February 11).
« This has to explode, » said the spokesperson for the taxi drivers in the Catalan capital.
Last week’s protest – called « Operation Padlock » – aimed to complicate city mobility and caused traffic jams and stoppages on several major roads, which was described as a « total success » by Álvarez.
During the strike hours, taxi drivers did not provide service and only circulated in cases of emergency.
« We’ve had enough, » said Álvarez, who denounced increases of « between 300% and 500% » in the taxi insurance sector.
He explained that they are paying more for the accident rate of VTC platforms, such as Uber or Cabify, which he assured are « crashing at every corner ».
« We should not be applied an accident rate that is not ours, » he argued.
Elite Taxi also demands that the Barcelona Urban Guard and the Mossos d’Esquadra carry out more controls of VTC platform vehicles that act, they maintain, « illegally ».
He said: « These vehicles need to be taken off the road, and for this, the Generalitat has to approve the transport law project, which regulates taxis and platforms. In Catalonia, there are 2,000 platform VTC vehicles, and 90% are illegal. »
The demonstration on February 11 will leave from the Venetian Towers of Plaza España towards the Department of Transport and Mobility.
Despite the wave of announced mobilisations, Álvarez wanted to reassure the city’s economic sectors and administrations, ensuring that taxis would be fully operational during the ISE, the Mobile World Congress and other events held in Barcelona.
But he warned: « We will be at 200%, but between one event and the other, there will be ‘Operation Padlock’. »
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