The private transportation application Uber continues to be in the news in Spain. Specifically in the county capital, where the city council has given order and instructions to the local police to persecute and fine the drivers of this and other services related to applications And it is that the pressure exerted by the taxi drivers' union seems to have begun to give their fruits after several stoppages and strikes against intrusive services that threaten their transport trade by not respecting the laws.
Thus, the newspaper El Mundo has had access to a document from Barcelona City Council detailing the Guardia Urbana the procedure to know, detect and fine this practice. And it is that Uber and other private transport services go against the Land Transport Regulation Law, therefore its drivers can be fined 4,001 euros as a sanction if this practice is detected. To this it is possible to add another two fines of 500 euros each for using a private vehicle to perform a public service and for not having the BTP permit to carry out this type of practice. Therefore, the final amount of the fines for these drivers could rise to 5,000 euros
However, as stated in the document issued by the Barcelona Town Hall, the police must detect this practice. To do this, they must individually interview both the driver and the supposed client of the service, demonstrating that there has been remuneration for the route offered. In addition, the police can attach as evidence of the crime paths screenshots (screenshots on the technological jargon) of the mobiles of the driver and the client with the payment or information and cost of the journey made. All this completely and correctly presented following the lines specified in the order created by the Barcelona City Council.
In this way, the requests of the union of taxi drivers who have openly protested since the arrival of the service Uber in Spain, begin to be fulfilled. Barcelona being the only city in which it operates at the moment.Significant protests on June 11th when they carried out a 24-hour strike in both Madrid and Barcelona, and many other cities in the rest of Europe that have having seen the progress of this and other private transport services.
In addition, this fulfills the warning that the Generalitat issued in June regarding the possibility of fines for illegal private transport services. Although in its day the fine was close to 6,000 euros and the taxi drivers union only saw this warning as a warning and not as a real action on the part of the government ofCatalonia
For now there is no reaction from Uber, a company that did not hesitate to apply a discount of 50 percent in their shared journeys during the day of the taxi drivers' strike, which in turn achieved greater visibility for the company.
