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Hundreds Of Road Transporters Protest In Bucharest

About 200 road transporters in Romania’s capital city Bucharest and surrounding Ilfov county gathered in the Constitutiei Square near the Parliament Palace Thursday to protest against the mayoralty’s decision to resume public transport in Ilfov.
Hundreds Of Road Transporters Protest In Bucharest
22 ian. 2009, 12:25, English

The secretary general of the federation of Romanian transport employers, Virgil Casmoiu, told MEDIAFAX that the activity of the public transport company in Ilfov is illegal, because it didn’t bid in public auctions for the attribution of transport routes and doesn’t pay any other fiscal dues in that respect.
 
"We’ll be back in two weeks with similar protests until problems are solved,” Casmoiu.
 
He added the mayoralty didn’t issue an authorization to allow transporters to march through the city.
 
Transporters came with some 200 buses and minibuses and will protest in the square until GMT 1300. Transporters will submit a memo with their requirements to the Government, the Bucharest mayoralty and the ministry of Transports.
 
Transporters had a meeting with Transport Ministry officials Wednesday and they were assured many of their issues would be solved in the upcoming two weeks federation president Ion Comusi said.
 
Transporters are displeased with the high number of taxi authorizations granted and the resuming of public transport between capital city Bucharest and surrounding Ilfov county, which puts private minibuses out of business.
 
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.
 
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.