Bulgarian Taxi Drivers Stage Protest Rally Tomorrow

Domestic | December 14, 2020, Monday // 14:51|  views

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The Federation of Taxi Drivers and Carriers in Bulgaria is organizing a nationwide protest tomorrow. It will be held from 12:00 in front of the local administration buildings across the country. The reason is the lack of response on the part of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Economy and Sofia municipality to the taxi drivers’ demands to the authorities raised at the end of November.

These include updating taxi fares (starting price - BGN 2.10, day tariff - 1.30 BGN/km, night tariff - 1.50 BGN/km, call - BGN 2.10, waiting - BGN/min 0.42.), abolition of patent tax for 2021, removal of applications for shared travel, alignment of taxi service  with public public transport, ensuring safety with panic button and others.

In late November, taxi drivers rallied on two consecutive days. On the first day there were clashes between them and participants in the protest against the government. The next day taxi drivers gathered again next to the Alexander Nevsky cathedral in the very center of Sofia.

Then they offered to drive doctors, teachers and clergy for free until March next year. As compensation, they asked the companies they work for to make discounts on their leasing schemes and in-house fees of 50 per cent for a period of three months. The next part of their plan was for commercial banks to offer discounts on loans to taxi companies in the same amount and term and for the Bulgarian Development Bank to compensate them for the missed benefits for the period.

 So far, none of the authority has contacted representatives of the Federation of Taxi Drivers.

 "If tomorrow we don‘t see understanding on the part of the authorities, the day after tomorrow there will be another protest, but on a larger scale," Georgi Dimitrov of the Federation of Taxi Drivers and Carriers explained to Dnevnik.

 He explained the problems which arose during the first protest a month ago. "Other protesters were allowed in to stir a conflict. Part of them rallied against the government, while we onlywant to do our job. The aim was to shed blood in Sofia center. We don't want that to happen. Now we have information about provocations being prepared again," Dimitrov said.

 He added that the protest in Sofia will not aim to block the city, and taxi drivers will abstain from any extreme actions. Taxis will move along three axes - Blvd. "Tsarigradsko Shosse", "Levski" and West Park residential districts.

 

 

 

 

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Tags: sofia, taxi drivers, protests

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