Romanian Transporters Threaten To Protest Wednesday

Transporters employers’ federations, FNPTR and FNPTRR, and the National Federation of Taxi Operators (FNCOTRR) held a press conference Tuesday and said they would protest unless solutions to their problems are found during their meeting on Wednesday with transport minister Radu Berceanu. 

 

Transporters said they would picket the Government headquarters, the Bucharest City Hall and the Transport Ministry. 

 

Transporters demanded the annulment of a government decree that sets passenger transport routes between Bucharest and Ilfov are considered local routes. The federation said the respective routes had been attributed by public auction in April 2008 to private road transporters for five years.

 

Transporters said they invested hundreds of millions of euros to renew their car parks and many are now almost bankrupt after the public transport company, RATB, introduced buses on those routes. The public tar sport company, which receives subsidies from local authorities, charges lower ticket prices than private operators.

 

Federation official Ion Comusi said transport operators in Ilfov already had to fire over 600 drivers.

 

Another issue raised by transporters was that authorities in Ilfov granted thousands of taxi authorizations. They sad taxi drivers list a price of RON1.4 per kilometer, but have meters that take the ride to double or triple what it’s worth.

 

The head of the Bucharest Taxi Chamber, Vasile Stefanescu, said all taxi drivers in Ilfov, about 4,500, also cover Bucharest, beside the 9,500 taxis authorized in Bucharest. Under the law, the maximum number of authorizations in a certain locality should observe a ratio of four cabs per 1,000 inhabitants. According to that law, there should only be 7,800 taxis in Bucharest.

 

"Moreover, mayor Sorin Oprescu wants to increase the number of cabs by 769!,” Stefanescu said.

 

Transporters also proposed that the Ministry of Transport draw up a road transport strategy for the medium and long term.

 

They also said about 10,000 vehicles in Romania transport freight and passengers without having the proper legal documents.