QCOSTARICA — Taxi drivers in Costa Rica are seeing the writing on the wall, their existence in the country will be none in the next five years. That is to say the red taxis will disappear by 2030 if the playing field is not leveled with digital platforms such as Uber and DiDi.
“Every day there are fewer of us, Costa Rica will be left without taxis in five years. We are going to disappear. We want to continue operating honestly, but it is no longer the same. We all need to work,” said Carlos Jiménez, one of the taxi drivers union representatives.
To make their point, on Thursday some 150 taxi drivers demonstrated in front of the Legislative Assembly in downtown San José to demand that proposed bill 23,736 be moved forward.
– Advertisement –
The objective of this initiative is to regulate technological transport platforms and create the “dual taxi” modality, which would allow taxis to continue operating as they have until now, but they could connect to applications such as Uber, Didi or InDriver, for example.
Currently, the initiative is in legislative gridlock with more than 200 motions, most of them from the PPartido Liberal Progresista (PLP), led by the presidential candidate in the 2022 general elections, Eliécer Feinzaig.
According to Fuerza Roja (the Red Force taxi drivers), this proposal is urgent to “level the playing field” in the face of a platform market that “has them drowned.”
“It is urgent that both taxi drivers and platform drivers are regulated legally. This activity must be balanced and all we want is to work as equals,” said Gilbert Ureña, representative of the Foro Nacional de Taxistas (National Taxi Drivers Forum).
Ureña added: “Our operating costs are high, we go twice a year for technical inspections, we pay quarterly insurance for our users, we pay self-employed insurance to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), we pay rent (for the taxis are not driver owned) and they don’t. We want the playing field to be level.”
Ureña assured that they are not against people who work on platforms, but against price abuses, as well as “unfair competition.”
– Advertisement –
“If this initiative does not advance, we taxi drivers will make it advance. We do not want to return to the times of before. We know that the legislators and the Government want to advance with the initiative. We are not against people who work, but against the abuses of the platforms that have been affecting more than 9,000 taxi drivers,” he said.
Ureña explained that of 13,500 taxi concessions, only 9,200 remain. He even said that by the end of this year, 2025, there could be less than 5,000 taxis.
“That is why we are here demanding that the Government and legislators speed up the pace and help us and our families,” he added.
Regarding the initiative, the Government announced that it will speed up the plan to regulate the transport platforms, according to pro-government legislator Pilar Cisneros at the meeting of the heads of the legislative party factions.
– Advertisement –
“The initiative is convened and the request that I made, which was accepted by the heads of the factions, is to put it on the agenda for next Monday to burn work all day; in simple terms, that it can return to the Government and Administration Commission to see deal with the more than 200 motions and then return to the legislative plenary,” declared the legislator. S
he added: “It is a consensual text. It has cost us blood, sweat, tears, and a thousand meetings. We want it to move forward and it is a priority of the Government.”
Some of the taxi drivers gave their opinions on social networks, such as: “We are no longer able to tolerate this situation and we are requesting the deputies to address it; We have been experiencing delays for over a decade; Immediate solutions are crucial for us and our families; We want to avoid being forgotten; Our situation is deteriorating.”
– Advertisement –
Source link
Rico
