Demand more regulations: “some drivers have no licences; can’t speak Portuguese”
TVDE drivers and bosses have led a noisy, slow-march protest past parliament today – just the latest sector to air its grievances ahead of the elections in little more than two weeks’ time.
Whereas farmers have been decrying the welter of regulations complicating their lives, TVDE operators are complaining about exactly the opposite.
The sector has long been notorious for employing immigrant drivers that ‘don’t know the language’ and have no idea of local geography. Add to this the claim that a lot of them don’t even hold valid driving licences.
Considering parliament has been dissolved, the seemingly endless procession of disgruntled citizens to, or past, its steps in recent days has been largely ‘playing to the media’: each demonstration stressing that MPs ‘must address’ their problems when parliament eventually reconvenes.
In the case of TVDE, the protest’s spokesman Carlos Cerqueira, questioned “will it take a tragedy for the government to pay attention?”
TVDE problems are not confined to the number of drivers not properly qualified to transport passengers. There are issues with tax/ maintenance of vehicles – even the price the platforms (namely Uber and Bolt) pay.
Said one driver, named as Gormitzvin and speaking English: “We are losing all the money. And we are not receiving that amount of money for how much time we are giving to the Uber and the Bolt, so we want to reduce the taxes. That is why we come here”.
Today’s horn-blasting protest was just a taster. Drivers “promise more” until they get a meeting with the government department overseeing their sector.
Says SIC, there are currently 62,000 drivers with valid TVDE licences in Portugal – the majority operating in the urban areas of Lisbon/ Porto.
Source material: SIC Notícias
