Pressure from other taxi drivers and authorities was too strong.
After Transport Minister Oleg Butković publicly said on Friday that Cammeo Taxi’s business model in Split was illegal, management of the company decided to suspend operations in the city, announced Cammeo on Monday, reports tportal.hr on December 5, 2016.
According to the statement, in the last two weeks, various inspections have banned as many as 14 vehicles in Split and issued penalties to Cammeo in the total amount of about one million kuna. Given that this is the first time that a competent authority has issued an opinion about a business model which have been used for years by travel agencies and a variety of rent-a-car companies, Cammeo decided to act in accordance with the law.
As a company which is managing its business according to the highest professional standards, while simultaneously respecting all legal provisions, Cammeo Group is ready to cooperate with the relevant ministry and all relevant departments to contribute to the development of the liberalization process, said the company in the statement.
“In all the towns in which we operate, we work in a completely legal way and we do not want to be accused of illegalities. We are sorry that the loudest opponents of the liberalization of the taxi market are those who are at the same time the largest tax debtors. We are suspending operations in Split because the Ministry has given us firm guarantees and a promise that the process of liberalization will proceed. We hope that it will happen as soon as possible. We would also like to publicly ‘thank’ Mayor of Split Baldasar on his public support to the hunt against Cammeo. He has proven that he wants to protect monopoly interests of local taxi companies and not the welfare of the citizens who have shown public support for us”, said CEO of Cammeo Group Vladimir Minovski.
The company also stated that Cammeo employees in Split received their first salary on Monday, and were also fired the same day. However, as soon as the conditions are met for them to continue their work in accordance with the law, Cammeo will continue with its operations in Split and will return to work all 75 dismissed employees. Cammeo is not giving up on further expansion of its business and will in the next six months launch operations in all towns in which there is not a limited number of taxi licenses and where local authorities are more sympathetic to market liberalization.
As a leader in the taxi market, Cammeo announced the launch of an initiative to sign a petition which should influence competent authorities at local and national levels to initiate the process of liberalization of the taxi market, concluded the company in the statement.
