Barcelona will regulate the time between a VTC booking and its arrival

Far from the problems recorded in 2018 between the taxi sector and that of the Vehicles with Driver (Vehículos de Turismo con Conductor), better known as VTC, having been resolved, the conflict remains latent, and for this reason the Barcelona city council wants to apply measures that limit the activity of VTCs.

Although the national government intervened last year by enacting a decree that regulated, among other things, the issuing of licences for hire vehicles with drivers and the limitation of these fleets, local management in the Catalan capital appears to be tightening the noose on the effectiveness of the companies operating VTCs.

Tightening the noose on Uber and Cabify

One of the greatest virtues, or problems, depending on the sector analysing it, of the services offered by companies such as Cabify and Uber is the almost immediate availability of a car with a driver. In this way, customers can travel with the same efficiency that previously only taxi drivers offered. Moreover, on occasion, the price of these journeys was very competitive compared with what other companies or groups charge.

That is why the Barcelona city council wants to apply measures that limit the activity of VTCs, among them the establishment of a minimum time between the request for a VTC service and its arrival at the passenger’s pick-up point is being considered. It is speculated that the waiting period between the booking of a VTC and its arrival would be at least six hours. This would eliminate the practical immediacy currently offered by these companies, in favour of the service that the taxi sector has always provided.

Labour improvements for VTC drivers

Among the objectives of the Barcelona city council regulation limiting VTC activity would be to improve the working conditions of drivers who work for these companies. In this way, a regulation would be enacted covering working hours, weekly rest days, overnight stay conditions and the recording of services.

Consensus between the Generalitat and the Barcelona mayor’s office

It will be the Barcelona Metropolitan Area council that gives the green light to the measures that more concisely regulate VTC services. The final text will be based on the measures adopted at the end of this month, following the dialogue process that the Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat of the Generalitat of Catalonia has opened.

Although it is a draft, the regulation appears to be in an almost final phase that would only need the established deadlines for approval. For this reason, the restriction of hire-vehicle-with-driver services would not take effect until, at the earliest, March, or at the latest, by the end of the first third of 2019.