The National Movement Association – TVDE will give institutional support to the demonstration planned for Friday in several cities across the country, organized by partners and drivers of Individual Passenger Transport in Uncharacterized Vehicles who want better working conditions.
Speaking to Lusa today, the newly-elected president of the National Movement Association – TVDE, Vítor Soares, explained that the organization “is in solidarity with the workers, partners and drivers, given the dissatisfaction in the sector” and is thus giving its “institutional support”.
The issue, according to Vítor Soares, is the cost of journeys which, at the moment, partners and drivers consider to be “at the threshold of profitability for the companies”, and the demonstrators are calling for a minimum kilometer rate of 0.70 cents.
Another issue is the demand for payment of 50% of the kilometer of the journey until the customer is picked up, since, according to the official, “the platforms are assigning journeys 10 kilometers from the pick-up” of passengers without any compensation for the driver.
The partners and drivers also want law 45/2018 to be revised, pointing out that they have already requested meetings with the parliamentary parties to present their proposals for amendments.
“We now live in an unregulated sector, despite the legislation, which is regulated solely by the platforms,” he accused, considering that the Uber law, as it became known five years ago when it was passed, “needs new, fair regulation by the state”.
According to Vítor Soares, the association is supporting the demonstrations in Lisbon, Coimbra and Faro, with a gathering planned for 07:00 on Avenida Dom João V, in Amoreiras, in Lisbon, next to Uber’s headquarters, and in Faro, at the airport at 09:00, with TVDEs expected to “stop for 24 hours” in the capital.
Currently, the National Movement Association – TVDE, which elected its new governing bodies in March, has around 200 members and is in the process of attracting new ones.
According to the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT), the number of TVDE driver certificates registered in Portugal is 77,441, according to the most recent data, from March 6.
There are 13 licensed electronic TVDE platform operators in Portugal, but only two (Bolt and Uber) are active, the others being Its My Ride, Vemja, Tazzi, Chofer, Klibber, Mobiz, Tarine, Ixat, Leb, Plink and Just Easy Mob!
The revision of the law regulating TVDE, scheduled for 2022, has still not progressed, five years after it came into force on November 1, 2018.
In 2023, the PS government led by António Costa postponed the revision of the law governing the sector, expecting it to be completed this year, once the European Union directive on TVDE was known.
