Barcelona set to phase out Uber and other e-hailing services
Barcelona is set to phase out e-hailing taxi services such as Uber and Cabify, known as VTCs in Spain, in a move to prioritise traditional cabs in the Catalan city.
The draft of a new so-called "Taxi Law", seen by Spanish daily El País, could see the removal of up to thousand urban VTCs that currently exist in the Barcelona metropolitan area as their licences expire.
The new law regulates transport in vehicles with up to nine seats and divides VTCs into several services: classic VTCs, "high availability vehicles" and limousines.
The reforms will also implement minimum Catalan language requirements on cab drivers.
In Spain VTC is used to denote e-hail services such as Uber, and means vehículo de transporte con conductor (literally 'transport car with a driver'), as opposed to traditional cabs hailed in the street.
The Generalitat estimates that 600 urban licences will expire if the draft law enters in force, although the intention is to make a "smooth transition" via another 300 that will continue to operate in compliance with court rulings until they also expire.
The new text also includes a data platform that will use geolocation technology to monitor taxis and VTCs for irregularities.
The draft text will be registered this Thursday in the Catalonian Parliament.
El País describes the process through which the e-hail phase-out will occur: "it involves the progressive reduction of VTC by granting them only short authorisations (two years), which will not be renewed automatically, will not be transferable and -in short- will disappear as they expire. If these limitations were not enough, the Generalitat de Catalunya reserves the right not to renew licences if it considers that they do not meet ecological or environmental criteria."
The Sindicato Libre de Trabajadores (SLT) of VTC drivers has claimed that the new law will see 70 percent of VTC licences disappear in the city. Today there are 990 licences in the metropolitan area and, if SLT's predictions are accurate, there would only be 297 left.
Currently in Barcelona and its metropolitan area there are 10,500 taxi licences and 990 urban VTC licences, according to reporting from the Catalan press.
The new legal framework also requires both taxi and VTC drivers to have a minimum B1 level of Catalan. Active drivers have two years to meet this requirement.
It also stipulates that drivers cannot have been convicted of murder, injury, crimes against sexual freedom or property.
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