New regulations for taxi services

The governments changes to the law regulating taxi services have come into force.

Bogdan Matei, 16.05.2019, 13:50

A fragile truce has been agreed on the
Romanian market of taxi services. The changes made by the government to the law
regulating this sector have come into effect. Adopted in the wake of vocal
protests by the so-called professional taxi drivers, the changes in question eliminate the phrasing repeatedly, which the police said prevented them from
applying real penalties to the motorists illegally providing taxi services,
with or without mobile phone apps. From now on, every motorist who provides
paid people transport services but who does not have the conventional taxi
driver licence is liable to fines and banned from using his or her car for half
a year. The spokesperson for the Bucharest traffic police Andra Arsintescu, told
Radio Romania:

Persons who fail to
produce a transport licence will receive fines ranging from 25,000 lei to 50,000 lei, and if the licence is not valid, the
fines range from 1,000 lei to 5,000 lei. These
penalties are accompanied by a ban to use the vehicle, with number plates being
confiscated for a period of six months.

The government has given assurances
that it will issue a new piece of legislation regulating the alternative
transport market, including services such as Uber and Clever. The transport
ministry is still working on the bill and says the delay was caused by the
search for legal solutions to ensure non-discriminatory treatment on the
market. The representatives of alternative taxi service apps say they won’t
shut down their businesses, but that it is up to drivers if they still want to
take rides. The harsh penalties for the users of digital ride sharing platforms
have been imposed after months of pressures from conventional taxi companies.
Thousands of their employees accompanied by their cars frequently picketed the
government demanding the elimination of the competition, which they described
as unfair. They said that what they generically termed as Uber drivers did
not have similar legal obligations as they did, and, worse still, their incomes
were not subject to tax.

The war of taxi services providers also caused
divisions among clients. Many complain that conventional taxi drivers are badly
behaved and that they themselves are guilty of tax evasion as they often don’t
give a receipt. Their tricks to charge more for a ride are also infamous, from
taking roundabout routes to hacking into their board meters to increase the
cost of the ride artificially. (Trans: C. Mateescu)