2023-09-03 22:23:06
The Córdoba Taxi Drivers Union differentiated itself from the rest of the organizations in the sector by stating that the Uber application should be legalized and regulated. They argued that the users have already made their choice, and that there are already hundreds of taxi drivers and bus drivers who are making trips under this system, which is considered illegal by the Municipality.
To explain this position, which is new in the field, the union leaders appeal to the definition of madness that –wrongly– is attributed to the German physicist Albert Einstein: “We cannot expect different results if we always do the same thing.”
How is this slogan applied? The union considers that the protest of tacheros in the street is not going to change a reality: that thousands of users have already chosen the Uber application when traveling in a car with a driver, over taxis and remises.
For this reason, they believe that instead of protesting once morest this system, it is necessary to ask that modifications be introduced so that it is regulated and legalized.
“We agree with the largest sanctions, we agree with the municipal application, the Ministry of Transportation has not contributed to the sector at all. The problem today is to see how we control, how we execute the fines. If the fines cannot be applied, the law is a dead letter”, affirmed the general secretary of the union, Mario Bitumi.
The leader explained that the taxi and remises centers, despite having their own mobile applications, continue to receive most of the travel requests through the telephone. “And they are very good applications,” he noted.
But he also pointed out that there is a huge number of people, especially under 30 years of age, who already have the use of smartphones for dozens of activities, including asking for a car with a driver to take them from one place to another. . And those applications are Uber and Cabify.
“Some of the arguments that are put forward are that they are foreign companies that take the money out of the country. But that happens with all the multinationals in Argentina. Citizens are not interested in that, we live in a globalized world, people care regarding the car, people care regarding traveling and traveling well”, Bitumi remarked.
On the other hand, the union assumes another reality: it is not only the users who choose the applications, there are also more and more taxi drivers and bus drivers who use them, even with the risk of being sanctioned by the Municipal Transport Police.
“We interceded with the Municipality so that they do not penalize the colleagues who use these applications. In Uber they say that there are 30 taxis working with them, but when we asked the affiliates, there are more than 600,” remarked the assistant secretary, Claudio López.
“We have to be part of the solution, we are already part of the problem. We have to find ways to be part of the solution. Work in politics, work in the media, work with solutions ”, they emphasize in the union.
“Ultimately, we are not in favor of Uber, but we are in favor of it being regulated within the system,” Bitumi added.
The municipal app is launched in test mode
Starting in the middle of this week, the municipal application for ordering taxis and remises will be available in beta version. It will begin to be used by officials and inspectors to refine its operation, with the aim of making it available to the public as of October.
The app will be called “Tu Taxi-Tu Remis”, and it will be available for download on a website and in the Android and Apple stores. It will coexist with the applications that different yellow and green car agencies already have.
The application will offer the user the possibility to enter their address or the geolocation of the cell phone. With this data, it will display the taxis and remises that are nearby.
In each car you can see the star rating given by other users, if the driver is a man or a woman, if the vehicle is small or large, if it is suitable for the transfer of people with disabilities and if it allows you to travel with pets.
It will also provide an estimate of what the trip would cost. Rodio remarked that the final price will be the one set by the taxi clock or the remis. For now, it will not be possible to pay through the application either.
This is one of the big differences that municipal development will have with respect to Uber, in which the value of the trip is established before the service is requested and, in addition, it can be paid through the app.
As a counterpart, the rate is regulated by the municipality and there is no risk of the vehicle carrying the user being hijacked in a control operation, since taxi drivers and bus drivers who use the system have to re-register and comply with all the requirements imposed by the concession.
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