Since Wednesday, taxi drivers have been encouraged to call out to the Belgian Government by displaying a message saying "This cab is not illegal" on the checker-patterned sides of their vehicles. Following a meeting held between representatives of Taxi Operators’ Associations and Taxi Radio Call Centres based in the Brussels-Capital Region, Brussels United Taxi Front sent a letter to Brussels Minister of Transport Pascal Smet, last Tuesday, demanding concrete action against Uber’s illegal carpooling service.
The Taxi Advisory Committee wants a meeting with the Minister to discuss the issue of illegal taxis used by Uber’s carpooling service. "The Taxi Advisory Committee is the only official consultative body in the sector," said ATB (Brussels Taxi Association) President Constantin Tsatsakis. "It has not held a single meeting since Pascal Smet was appointed as Transport Minister. As far as we’re concerned, we don’t understand him at all. It seems as if he doesn’t want to renew the committee because he instead prefers to organise working groups with private hire car drivers."
Brussels United Taxi Front is against bringing in regulations for Uber’s illegal carpooling service. On the contrary, it expects the Government to implement repressive measures. Brussels United Taxi Front is composed of Taxi Operators’ Associations and Taxi Radio Call Centres (ATB, Autolux, But, Fédération Belge des Taxis (Belgian Taxi Federation), FNEIT, GTL, Ingoboka Taxis, Taxis bleus, Taxis Ucclois 2000, Taxis United, Taxi verts, Unitax, UPETB and UPETTC).
(Source: Belga)
