Uber and Cabify versus taxi: unsustainable mobility in Seville

The tension for the irruption of the business of companies like Uber or Cabify is lived in several cities, but in the Seville capital is added the conflict of two decades ago by the clients of the airport.

An April Feria longer than ever, the premiere of companies with VTC licenses in the Real and that these are the busiest days of the year, form a new stage for discord.

Seville was already a minefield and has ended exploding with the irruption of the new business model of companies such as Uber and Cabify, given that they involve more competition to transport travelers in a city with a conflict between the taxi drivers themselves for the control of the stop of the airport, bitter for two decades.

Nine Cabify vehicles, which have strengthened their fleet in the city for the April Feria, have been calcined and the Guardia Civil suspects that it is a deliberate fire. The investigation is still under way, but in the city it is impossible not to remember the conflict due to a monopoly by a group of taxi drivers from the airport, which for years has caused not only incidents in this guild, but even with the bus that does the same tour at popular prices.

It has happened in full parties, when the queues to catch a taxi in the fairgrounds become endless and to see one free in another point of the city is highly improbable, which gives idea of ​​the money that can give these services. The mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, condemned in declarations to the SER chain the facts and was the first to insinuate a connection when he hoped that those responsible, “with very clear and concrete interests”, receive “the punishment they deserve.”

Meanwhile, the municipal spokesman of C’s, the formation that more insistently is demanding the end of this problem in the city, demands that “it does not drain the bulk”. In this line, Javier Millán, although he acknowledged that the investigation is still under way, also said: “An effort is needed to enable this company to exercise free competition over taxi or any other operator that comes.”

It is not by chance. First, because it happens after a week of protests of taxi drivers against these operators. And second, because it is not the first time, although it is a more serious event so far. In the workshops of the dealers of the most recurring brands for Cabify confirm at the event that the services of sheet and paint for this company are a constant since it landed in the Seville capital in September 2016.

Just as it is present in Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona and Valencia, where they have had “specific problems, but nowhere like in Seville”, according to those responsible. “We are victims of attacks by sectors that are considered threatened by the progress and innovation provided by Cabify to mobility,” they point out.

The Spanish Taxi Federation (Fedetaxi), which groups around 70% of this sector, has also been quick to issue a condemnation statement. “Beings like those who caused the events of last night have no place in any sector, nor in society itself,” he says. On the other side, the National Union of Autoturismos VTC (Unauto), the main one in this sector, has issued another against a fire “provoked” and that “has endangered nearby homes” and its inhabitants, in addition to the driver of a tenth vehicle that managed to save him from the flames.

All this in a context in which the City of Seville has been forced this year to increase the numbers of the Local Police to try to end a problem that damages the image of a city that lives tourism. The truth is that since last January, the VTC sector has fifty complaints, after suffering their drivers alleged damages, threats or coercion that they attribute to these taxi drivers. For its part, there are 39 complaints from the Local Police against drivers of VTC, especially raised by taxi drivers. The resolution of these files is still pending.

Meanwhile, the investigation promoted by the National Police Corps Information Brigade in the airport surroundings has resulted in a total of 27 taxi drivers being investigated for alleged coercion, threats and damages. In particular, two taxi drivers were detained last March, and joined the proceedings already carried out by the same device with the taking of testimony to 25 others, some of them as witnesses and others as investigated non-detainees. Solidaridad del Taxi, the sector association that controls those who render at the airport, has been quick to say that “90%” of these 27 “do not belong” to it.

The Councilor for Security and Mobility, Juan Carlos Cabrera, denies that “there is a conflict” in the sector and insists that “only irregular charges are collected, as in other cities,” but he himself has been forced to meet with the director of the airport, Jesus Caballero, to try to find solutions. At the moment, they have agreed to provide at the airport a space for VTC, to have a registry of the cars authorized for this activity and to place informative panels with the rates of the taxis and the bus line.

Likewise, the mayor insists that the controls are the same for taxi drivers as for VTC, in reference to those who have accused him of looking the other way, among other things because in his day he was the first director of the Municipal Taxi Institute. In fact, from the consistory remember that last April, the Local Police immobilized in a few days two taxis that provided the service without the mandatory revision.

The war had begun long before

That is the problem with the VTC, because the war between the taxi drivers themselves is not recognized by the socialist, as was pointed out above. In this front is the association Free Taxi Forum in front of Taxi Solidarity in continuous crosses of reproaches. The third association, Unión del Taxi, used to defend rotating shifts to ensure that all taxi drivers have the same right to provide the service on a route that leaves the best races, and is currently subject to a rate of around 30 Euros. But now he does not share this model.

The case is that in the last two months have occurred a couple of facts that reflect that the struggle is very far from being solved. On the one hand, the plenary rejected a motion proposed by C’s for a consultation between the taxi drivers of the city, on whether or not to set up a rotating shift, such as that done in 2001 and where the majority won the yes until The City of Seville yielded to the pressures and let the formula die.

It was overturned by the opposite vote of the PSOE and the PP, who clarified that they were not opposed to the consultation, but that the Municipal Taxi Institute should be positioned first. And this body, where in addition to the political groups are UGT, the consumers and the two major associations of the guild – Union of Taxi and Solidarity of Taxi voted against.

The second thing that has happened is the resignation of the president Taxi Libre Forum, Juan Martín Caparrós, tirelessly so far in the fight against what he calls “mafia” at the airport. The reason? “The unbearable situation of harassment” – his home had been painted for the umpteenth time – and the “obstruction” of his work. ” It is unbearable. We paid a license to the City of Seville, but we can not go to work at the airport, “insisted the recently leader of an organization with 226 associates and who, however, has no seat in the Municipal Taxi Institute, which controls more than 2,000 licenses in the city.

While the local government does not end up imposing respect for legality, taxi drivers have knocked on the door of the Junta de Andalucía. The main associations of taxi drivers have met with the Director General of Mobility, Rafael Chacón, to address a commitment to “peaceful coexistence” between these professionals and VTC companies, since they insist that they do not want to drive anyone, Only that the law be fulfilled. ” Among other things, the Junta de Andalucía shuffles to impose the use of badges to clearly identify VTCs.

“The PSOE does not dare to catch the bull by the horns”, says the mayor of IU Daniel González Rojas. “The government of Juan Espadas is covering his eyes before a monopoly privileged for years by the inaction of different mayors,” apostilles from C’s Javier Millán.

Concern over this problem has spread. From the Confederation of Employers of Seville (CES) recently issued a statement supporting companies like Cabify or Uber in the “free exercise” of their business. Moreover, the CES is convinced that if the promised railway connection to the airport is ever developed, this problem will end, convinced the employers that a train would not face the sabotage that has already suffered the bus, which also Is an equally fast means of transport.

Likewise, associations such as sevillasemueve and Iniciativa Sevilla Abierta have united in a manifesto against certain taxi practices. “Sevillians, who this year will devote 818,157 euros of our taxes to rescue taxi licenses, whose livelihood depends in many cases on tourism and services, we strive every day to offer the best face of Seville, we do not deserve a small Although well organized group of bad professionals throw everything by land in order to fill their pockets with illegal practices. These types of coercion groups are inadmissible in a democratic and decent society. ”

Source: eldiario.es/andalucia.