The proposal submitted by APTAD to the government suggests measures to ensure fair minimum tariffs, economic sustainability, daily and weekly availability limits for drivers, minimum occupancy rates per platform, prohibition of new vehicle registrations where the platform is below the minimum, and a greater structural separation between operators and electronic platforms.
According to Ivo Miguel Fernandes, president of APTAD, the law regulating the sector, established in 2018 and never reviewed since, “causes very significant imbalances between the platforms, the Individual and Paid Passenger Transport Operators in Uncharacterized Vehicles from Electronic Platforms (TVDE), and the drivers who are at the forefront and provide the service.”
“There is an imbalance that has been causing a complete squeeze on operators, who feel crushed and end up transferring a large part of the business risk to the drivers,” stated the APTAD president.
Drivers work “far beyond the 40-hour work week to earn income, but most of the time, the income they achieve is below the national minimum wage, which is completely unacceptable because it leads to the degradation of the sector and devaluation of the workforce,” he added.
Ivo Miguel Fernandes emphasized “two fundamental pillars” of the proposed amendment to Law No. 45/2018 (TVDE), which APTAD presented to the Secretary of State for Mobility, and that, if considered by the government, would allow rebalancing the relationship between platforms and operators, notably the existence of a minimum tariff, preventing platforms from selling the service provided by operators below cost price.
The second pillar of APTAD’s proposal, the official added, aims to “ensure the balance between supply and demand through an occupancy rate model that ensures that vehicles serving the platforms are effectively working.”
“Our proposals are very much aligned with the reports from the Mobility and Transport Authority. We are confident—and believe nothing else—that the proposal the government will present to overhaul this legislation will, of course, be in line with what we advocate and what the Mobility and Transport Authority advocates. We have been assured that in the coming weeks, before the end of the year, the government will present this proposal,” concluded the APTAD representative.
