Coup de effect of the taxi drivers of the metropolitan area of Barcelona in their war against the large urban transport applications that use rental cars with drivers, also known as VTC. This Thursday, Élite Taxi got the PSC, ERC, Junts and CUP groups in the Parliament of Catalonia to commit to supporting a law to accompany the budgets that contemplates forcing the drivers of these vehicles who usually work with the apps of Cabify, Uber and Bolt to have the B2 level of Catalan.
In exchange, taxi drivers will not block the airport this Monday, nor will they boycott the Mobile World Congress. Every year Elite Taxi threatens Mobile, and every year the administrations take fewer hours to address their demands. Meanwhile, the sector's employers, the owners of VTC licenses and vehicle fleets, what would be the armed wing of the large apps, denounce that the sector is suffering these days in Barcelona from a campaign of police and political harassment.
In reality, this initiative has little to do with the promotion of the language. The measure is mainly designed to complicate the lives of large urban transport multinationals, so that they have more problems finding drivers and cannot provide their service properly. This is the latest trick of Alberto Álvarez, alias Tito, founder of Élite Taxi.
Tito had been thinking about the idea for days, but everything was unleashed on Monday, when technicians from the Territori department informed him that a ruling will soon open the doors to around 1,400 new VTC licenses that will be able to operate happily for four years. The entry into force of these permissions will breathe oxygen into large apps.
Then Tito concluded that the best way to alleviate this judicial tsunami was to convince politicians that they must design a mandatory credential that toughens the requirements to work as a driver of these vehicles. At the moment it is more or less enough to have had a driving license for a couple of years. The obligation to have a B2 level of Catalan will bring a few problems to the license holders when it comes to finding workers. In any case, the profile of this sector is not as marked as that of bicycle delivery drivers.
Furthermore, Tito found a way for the shot not to backfire. Since the taxi driver credential is in operation, only new taxi drivers will have to prove their knowledge of Catalan. In any case, Tito himself is willing to set an example and obtain the B2 level. In fact, these days the audio messages that he usually sends to the media already include a Catalan version. Before, I sent them all only in Spanish.
Meanwhile, the unrest among the employers of car rentals with drivers is enormous. The main associations issued a statement to denounce a campaign of police and political harassment in Barcelona. The owners of the licenses and fleets did not want to put emphasis on the issue of Catalan. It could easily backfire. But they assured that for days their drivers have been suffering from "an unjustified special control device by the Urban Police as a result of pressure from Elite Taxi that contradicts the Generalitat's invitation to VTCs domiciled in Catalonia to work in the metropolitan area during Mobile." Unauto VTC, Feneval VTC and the VTC Gran Turisme de Catalunya Association also indicate that they will assess “the damage caused in the form of unfair fines and will take the appropriate measures.” Now it is the VTCs who threaten Mobile. The employers do not rule out carrying out a strike during Mobile.
