European Social Partners in road transport call for a level playing field in taxi and hire cars with driver sector, to support innovation and ensure quality of service to customers, good working conditions, and competitiveness of the public transport chain.
BRUSSELS – The European road transport Social Partners, IRU and ETF, representing employers and employees in the taxis and hire cars with driver sector, call upon European institutions and relevant national and local competent authorities, to recognise taxis and hire cars with drivers as an integral part of the public transport chain, and to ensure a level playing field for all mobility service providers, including for self-proclaimed ‘ride-sharing for-reward’ transport platforms.
Roberto Parillo, ETF Road Transport Section President, commented: “Be it for taxi companies or hire-car firms with driver, or for their drivers, it is imperative to observe applicable social and tax rules, legislation and working conditions. This is key to ensuring good service and total safety for the public. New technologies, including mobile applications used by customers, are imperative to the development of the sector in compliance with applicable rules.”
IRU and ETF request the European Commission to consider, as a first step, proposing an access to the profession regime for taxis and hire cars with driver in Europe, taking into account the sector’s specific operational and service environment.
They also invite customers’ organisations and all mobility stakeholders, to join their efforts to guarantee a level playing field for all, and recommend to business partners, as well as travel booking platforms from the mobility, hospitality, travel and tourism business, to recommend or make use for their customers, of legal and law abiding taxi companies and apps.
Hubert Andela, President of the IRU Taxi Group, concluded, “Over recent years the taxi business has increasingly embraced the latest technologies. Every day, a new app is created by the global taxi industry, to better serve their customers. It is now our objective to further enlarge and strengthen the IRU Global Taxi Network, to allow the creation of a genuinely global roaming network of taxi apps, offering customers the possibility to use their own local app to order high quality, legal and safe taxi services anytime, anywhere in the world”.
The IRU, ETF and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are determined to strengthen their cooperation and alert all concerned mobility actors with regards to the challenges represented by the self-proclaimed ‘ride-sharing for-reward’ transport platforms.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
