Transport

Taxi strike warns against deregulation

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Drivers around the country are striking on Wednesday to protest against a government report that recommends deregulation in the sector. The strike is being led by FNAT, the federation of self-employed taxi drivers.

There is a partial strike by taxi drivers around France Wednesday following a call by the national federation of self-employed taxi drivers (FNAT). The objective: protesting against proposition 211 from the Attali report [the result of commission tasked by President Sarkozy with finding solutions to the country's economic problems] which recommends deregulating the sector by opening it up to more competition. A gathering of taxi drivers is expected at 10am at the Place de la République in Paris to ask the government to be "open to negotiations,” Abdel Guelfi, a representative from the taxi branch of the CFDT union, told FRANCE 24. The union, however, is refusing to join the protest. At a press conference on Tuesday, Alain Estival, the FNAT president, said that the strike movement was extendable and noted that Parisian taxis are always the scapegoats. “The situation is dramatic,” he explained. “If we deregulate the number of taxis, three years later, there won’t be any taxis anymore because drivers won’t be able to earn their living well enough. It’s a bad solution. No taxis in the world are deregulated.”


Pass on the rise in gas prices to the cost of fares

He adds that in Paris, it is traffic that poses the biggest problem. “Everyday between 700 and 1000 cars are stuck on the expressway north of the city, in addition to 250 to 300 kilometers of traffic jams in the capital itself. But the Attali commission doesn’t talk about that.” Furthermore, “A taxi driver earns on average 7.63 euros per hour, working 70 hours per week, and after the report, they are going to lose between 10 and 15 percent in buying power in 2008.”

Indeed, in its final version, the Attali report’s section on taxis anticipates, among other measures, increasing their number, passing on the hike in gas prices to fare costs and removing the territorial restrictions that limit charging customers in certain travel zones. The report also mentions that after completely opening the taxi market, their numbers would reach—in Paris and its suburbs—some 60,000 cars, compared to 16,000 at present. (Read the complete Attali report in French).

But the FNAT sees something wrong with the report. Only the recommendation permitting taxis to “travel back from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in a dedicated lane” seems to find favor in their eyes. But this demand that goes back 25 years is considered insufficient, according to the remarks of the FNAT president. In his attempt to head off the crisis, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë declared himself in favor of public powers buying of taxi licences. He says he is ready to invest a lot of money for this effort, on the condition that the prices for the licenses are the real ones.”


Manipulation?

While acknowledging that taxi drivers have trouble earning a living, the mayor implied that he has other ideas for reform of the sector—but that they can’t be put into effect without the backing of the profession “Over the course of my term, I have put forth a lot of propositions that allowed for increasing by 900 the number of taxis in Paris, today seeing an annual rhythm of 300 additional cars,’ he calculated. Luc Châtel, the minister of state responsible for Consumer Affairs and Tourism, leans in the same direction. He is in favor of increasing the number of taxis, on the condition that the impact on the whole of the profession is taken into account. “We should be making it easier to have access to taxis, meaning that there be enough during the right hours, at the right moment. But the increase in the number of licences granted is not the right solution,” he says. While a first day of protest was organized by taxi drivers this past September 26th, Wednesday’s strike does not seem to have convinced all the unions. Abdel Guelfi of the CFDT described the strike movement as “manipulation.” "It will not be followed like we would have liked. Strikes shouldn’t be started in three days without consulting the concerned parties. We can smell an odor of manipulation behind all this,” he concluded. The Sud union is suggesting the same thing.

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