The Government announced that new laws regulating new private transport services such as Uber and Cabify will be ready in September.
Secretary of State for the Environment, José Mendes, has had detailed discussions with representatives from the taxi industry associations (ANTRAL and FPT), and says the government has listened to them regarding the drafting of the new law.
The taxis industry associations chiefs left a meeting on Tuesday, saying they were still unhappy.
The Portuguese Federation of Taxi Drivers (FPT) and the National Association of Road Transport Passenger Cars (ANTRAL) say their members will be taking action against what they call the liberalisation of the sector.
Florencio de Almeida, the president of ANTRAL, is suspicious of the government’s intentions, saying he still feels in the dark about what the government is proposing and that his members will be taking action against what he described as the illegal activities of Uber and the like.
Carlos Ramos, president of FPT said, "we are not against these platforms. What we want is to have the same rights as the platforms,” and accused the government of wanting to deregulate the sector by promoting unfair competition between taxi drivers and the new transport services.
The Secretary of State, José Mendes, denied that the Government intends to harm the taxi drivers and said they will be keeping their current rights "the taxi industry has a number of tax benefits, has the right to use taxi ranks in the street and is entitled to pick customers up from the roadside, which are rights that none of the other operators will have."
The Competition Authority came out in favour of the new private transport platforms such as Uber and Cabify being able to operate in Portugal, noting that they offer new opportunities in the market but advised the government at the same time to end restrictions for the traditional taxi operators.
