Distributed from Friday this week, the National Association for Road Carriers in Light Vehicles (ANTRAL) and the Portuguese Taxi Federation (FPT) stressed in their joint manifesto that Uber is illegal in Portugal because the service “does not respect, obey, nor does it submit to legal rules which in Portugal regulate the activity of taxi transportation.”
In their manifesto, which has been delivered to the Government and to the Institute for Mobility and Transports, they further accuse Uber, which operates via an online app, of charging what it wants and of boosting prices during peak seasons.
Vehicles “are not equipped, identified or licensed […] or authorised for the activity they carry out”, ANTRAL and the FPT argue, adding that Uber drivers are not professionally certified for the job either.
According to the taxi associations, none of the participating parties in Uber’s service – canvassers, vehicle owners or drivers – pay taxes or social security on the activity, and it is not covered by insurances required by law for the passenger transport sector.
They have therefore demanded the government takes “adequate action to eliminate an activity that is illegal” and ask “all citizens for their help” in the process.
Over recent months Portugal’s taxi drivers have intensified their stance against the Uber service.
Last month the Ministry for the Environment, which oversees the sector, put forward a package of 10 measures to modernise the taxi sector, representing a total investment of €17 million but the taxi drivers see the proposal as a “bargaining chip”, to opening the door to regulate Uber.
Meanwhile it seems the number of incidents involving attacks by scathing taxi supporters on Uber drivers and customers shows little sign of abating.
In February two Uber drivers were assaulted by four people outside a hotel in Porto, two of whom were taxi drivers.
PSP police were called to intervene and a formal complaint was lodged.
Earlier that same month two youths and a 55-year-old Uber driver were also attacked by taxi drivers in the vicinity of a Lisbon shopping centre.
Last week The Portugal News was informed by a resident in Lisbon that a group of friends of which the resident was part were set upon by three “aggressive” men, allegedly “angry taxi drivers”, as they climbed inside an Uber ride they had ordered following a meal at a restaurant.
The reader claims the party was accused of opting for the private service as it is “cheaper” and that the trio of aggressors warned them of the pitfalls of using an uninsured service before breaking the Uber car’s back windshield and “came close to hitting us.”
The resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, said in their opinion taxi drivers are becoming more aggressive towards Uber providers, but reports of being stung by over-inflated taxi prices and “irrational” driving is leading a lot of people to opt for the online app service.