The Government has today announced an agreement with the PSC parliamentary group to carry out the decree that will regulate for two years, and extendable for another two, the VTC sector (vehicles for rent with driver). The decree law, which is expected to be approved by the Government next week and validated by Parliament before the end of July, has the objective of establishing the VTC service as “complementary” to the taxi and ensure the rule until the courts clarify various legal doubts about the VTC.
As news, the Secretary of Territory and Mobility of the Generalitat, Isidre Gavín, has explained to the media that the regulations include a sanctioning regime to ensure that the VTCs implement the pre-contracting of 15 minutes already included in the state regulations previous. In addition, the new rule requires drivers and platforms to have a car assigned from one year before the decree is approved, a measure that wants to avoid the “intrusiveness” of companies that only operate in Catalonia in high demand season and ensure constant service. To differentiate the service of both sectors, VTC vehicles must also have a minimum measure of 4.90 meters, that is, to be high-end cars.
The PSC’s deputy secretary for Municipal Policy and first deputy mayor, Jaume Collboni, has assured that the regulations will “pacify” the social struggle that began with the arrival of the large VTC platforms in Catalonia, through a “historic, balanced and fair” agreement. “We want to ensure that the taxi is a quality sector, protected by the public powers so that it can provide Barcelona with the service it deserves”, Collboni stated.
Currently, the Government figures around 1,455 active VTC licenses that have a car assigned and are in circulation, out of a total of 3,066 in force, a number that they assure will not increase. In this sense, the general secretary of Municipal Policy of the PSC Barcelona and president of the Institut Metropolità del Taxi, Laia Bonet, has assured that all the requirements will only apply to licenses already issued by the Government, since no new permissions will be granted. “The decree law allows people who, until now, have been working in compliance with the regulation to continue doing so, as long as they also adapt to the new requirements,” Bonet assured.
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The coordinator of Elite Taxi, the majority association of the taxi sector, Tito Álvarez, has celebrated both the agreement and the final text of the decree law that, he assures, positions Catalonia with “small self-employed workers and SMEs”. “We hope that this pioneering decree law will serve as a precedent for other autonomous communities also implant it throughout the territory”, concluded Álvarez.
The VTC employers speak of “unjustified and disproportionate restrictions”
The agreement reached between the Government and the PSC, which has received the approval of the main taxi association, has logically had a strong response from the VTC employers. “The data revealed about the regulation announce the partial destruction of a sector that employs thousands of Catalan families by introducing unjustified and disproportionate restrictions, with the sole objective of eliminating it. Once again, the regulation of the VTC in Catalonia has been done behind the back of the sector and to the dictation of a part of the taxi sector & rdquor ;, Ignacio Manzano, vice president of FENEVAL and José Manuel Berzal, president of Unauto-VTC, affirm in a joint statement.
“At a time when Barcelona is experiencing a great shortage of transport alternatives, eliminating thousands of VTC licenses from Catalonia will not only worsen the mobility of Barcelonans, but will seriously damage the image of the city”, they add. They also point out that, in In his opinion, the regulation is “manifestly contrary to the recommendations issued by the European Commission, which advocate the modernization of taxi and VTC regulations to reduce empty trips, and make it easier for drivers to provide shared transport services” .
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