French government gives ground to protesters in taxi tussleThe French government has made a fresh concession to the traditional taxi industry in what has become one of the most fiercely contested efforts to open up the country’s restricted service markets.
Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister, announced on Thursday that all new registrations of private-hire cabs would be suspended for at least two months while a way was sought to reconcile drivers of licensed street taxis to a breach in their monopoly.
Street taxis had mounted a series of demonstrations since Monday, jamming key motorways and junctions around Paris and its main airports, threatening indefinite action to press their case.
Some private cab owners, whose numbers have grown rapidly since they were first allowed to enter the market in 2009, complained they had been threatened with violence by the protesters.
The focus of the protests was the rejection this month by the Council of State, the highest administrative court, of a move by the government to require private-hire cabs to wait at least 15 minutes between taking a booking from a passenger and picking them up.
The delay was intended to protect the traditional taxis’ monopoly right to pick up fares on the street, and was being eroded by online booking services offered by new operators that can often pick up passengers within five minutes.
Taxi unions want the delay restored and extended. They complain that their drivers have to pay heavily – more than €200,000 in Paris – to acquire one of the limited number of street taxi licences, while private-hire licences cost only €120.
The government could issue more street licences to lower the cost, but is afraid of destroying the value of the existing ones, which taxi owners often use to fund their pensions.
After meetings between a state mediator and the taxi unions, Mr Ayrault said new registrations of private-hire cabs would be suspended until the outcome of a government-initiated review of the taxi market, due to report in two months’ time.
In the meantime, police were ordered to enforce the exclusion from bus lanes and airport taxi ranks of private-hire cabs. The taxi unions called off their protests following the announcement.
Benjamin Cardoso, head of LeCab, one of the online booking services, said the review should be given a chance to find a way to allow the two categories to coexist “peacefully”.
France has a shortage of street taxis compared with neighbouring countries, with only 55,000 licensed across the country. Since the new category of cabs was introduced – know as VTCs, or “tourist cars with chauffeurs” – their numbers have grown to 12,400 countrywide. That compares with about 40,000 “mini-cabs” in London alone.
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