Report says cab and VTC legislation hurts end users

The current regulation in Spain on cabs and VTC contains restrictions that "unnecessarily harm end users" by artificially limiting the number of vehicles in both cases and the possibility that the companies can implement new services for the benefit of end users, according to a report published by the Dykinson publishing house.

This is what Inmaculada González Cabrera, professor of Commercial Law at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and specialist in collaborative economy, who has just released the book ‘El Transporte a escena’, published by Dykinson publishing house. The author argues that the current legislation must evolve and understand that the VTC have developed and have become something else. 

“Now we talk about cab and VTC as antagónicos elements and we must make known that in most cases provide the same service, but operate as two different business models. VTCs can no longer be classified in a collaborative economy model”, he points out.

In his opinion, and as recommended by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), a global regulatory approach should be adopted on the activity of cabs and VTCs. “The new legal framework must focus on protecting and improving services for consumers and users, contrary to what has happened with the últimas legal reforms, which have even reduced the competitiveness of both sectors, something that undoubtedly harms the end user”.

In her book, Inmaculada González exposes examples of the development of companies such as Uber, BlaBlaCar or Cabify, which use platforms to promote their services, and argues that the legislative cálegislative bodies should implement the same rules for them as for those providing similar services offline, always for the benefit of consumers.

“Most of the supralocal regulation that exists in Spain tends to restrict VTCs to the benefit of cabs but, being both models implemented, we must seek a framework similar to that which is established in the UK and which relaxes the regulation of both parties, taking into account the rights of travelers, especially their safety,”, he suggests.

For this expert, not only VTCs will benefit, but also the cab sector, since the administration has generated a bottleneck in the generation of new licenses and their amortization;n of new licenses and its amortization & oacute; n makes the investment & oacute; n increasingly less profitable, is something that is & aacute; darkening the sector with resales and subcontracting sometimes outside the legality ”, notes.

But the review of the restrictions on the number of cab licenses should also be extended to VTC. “Now we have the case that in cities like Madrid or Barcelona, the vehicles operating already exceed the number of licenses that will be issuedán legally, a despropósito”, he points out.

The new legislation must “avoid unjustified discrimination between cabs and VTC in terms of hiring, schedules and calendar, characteristics of vehicles, circulation and parking;n and parking, as well as in the uniforms worn by drivers, and & nbsp; should enable that, in the future, the VTC can provide services not only in the autonomous community of origin & rdquo;, concludes.