Bucharest taxi drivers could be sanctioned for arbitrarily refusing rides

The Bucharest City Hall, in consultation with professional taxi drivers associations, is working on a new set of rules for cab drivers operating in the capital. Under the new rules, cab drivers could be fined for arbitrarily refusing rides, for setting prices other than the metered ones, or for rude behavior, Digi24 reports. The new rules would replace the 2009 statute of taxi drivers. A quarter of the complaints filed with the Bucharest City Hall in 2016 were related to the refusal of taxi drivers to take on rides, while another quarter concerned uncivilized behavior, according to Digi24. The fines that could be applied would not exceed RON 5,000 (EUR 1,112) as this is the maximum amount that can be set through a City Hall council decision. According to the 2003 taxi driving law, several institutions can control the activity of a taxi driver. They can be the local public authority, the local and county fiscal authorities, the specialized departments of the Finance Ministry, the Romanian Road Authority, the Romanian Legal Metrology Bureau, the Romanian Car Registry, and the National Consumer Protection Authority. While in traffic however, taxi drivers can be subjected to controls by these institutions only together with the traffic police. Some 3,103 controls took place last year concerning taxi transport, and 534 fines totaling RON 634,100 (EUR 141,000) were applied. Some 150 taxi drivers lost their licenses. The Confederation of Authorized Operators and Transporters in Romania (COTAR) supports the new rules of the city hall and says clients can call them to report cab drivers who refuse to take them on without a valid reason. “We asked for the introduction of new provisions in the new Statute: a decent dress code, a decent vocabulary […] If these are not followed the license can be suspended, then annulled. Because otherwise there will never be any order in the country. This is what we, COTAR, and the Taxi Drivers Chamber proposed,” said Vasile Stefanescu, president of COTAR, quoted by Digi24. The poor quality of taxi services in Bucharest has made the ride sharing app Uber very successful in Romania's capital. The taxi drivers have been complaining about Uber's competition to the authorities, claiming that the app-based service functioned outside the law. Bucharest authorities will check how taxis operate in the capital Taxi companies want Uber ad removed from Bucharest airport Taxi drivers in Bucharest have found a way to fight their Uber competitors