Drivers invite colleagues to take a “national TVDE strike” on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, turning off the application.
According to a driver in Porto contacted by Lusa, the protest came from several groups of drivers who met on social networks, namely on WhatsApp.
According to the same source, the protest is related to the announcement of a reduction in the price of trips starting this Friday by the passenger transport platform, which reported this to partner drivers only on Thursday.
The price cut will lower these drivers’ profit margin per trip to unsustainable levels, he added.
Although the protest is scheduled for Saturday, in Porto today, enough drivers will have turned off the application, he added, unable to determine if the same happened in Lisbon and other parts of the country.
In a flyer calling for the Internet strike with the hashtag “#uberoff”, Uber drivers and partners say they are “full of ever-lower cuts and fares, while expenses are rising day by day.”
They are also calling a meeting for Monday, in Lisbon, in Belém Park, at 10:00 am, from where they will idle to Uber’s green hub in Amoreiras.
The signatories call for the intervention of the President of the Republic, the Government, the deputies and the parties with parliamentary seat against the “constant violations” to the law for the sector of TVDE activity (individual and remunerated passenger transport in vehicles that are not characterized by platform). electronics).
Among the roadblocks, they criticize the prices of the tariffs set by the electronic platforms that “change values (always lowering prices) without concern for the remuneration of each partner / driver”, making “inherent values” to the activity.
On Jan. 2, Thursday, “Uber lowers rates at will by about 10% while maintaining the maximum intermediary rate allowed by law (25%) with only six hours’ notice, ie informed around 18:00 the change of tariffs effective from “today, is stressed in the petition.
Contacted by Lusa, UBER’s official source said that “drivers can freely choose to be linked to the application, and Uber does not impose any limitation on that”, but “offers the best possible value to both drivers and users” to “continue to rely on their preference “.
“These new prices will make the service even more accessible to users and, at the same time, improve driver income,” a balance “essential for shared mobility to be an effective alternative to the private car and remain an attractive economic opportunity for partners and drivers, “wrote the same source via email.
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