SPLIT, August 7, 2019 – The mayors of Split and Dubrovnik, Andro Krstulović Opara and Mato Franković, who have recently held a series of meetings on negative effects of the liberalisation of the taxi services market on those two coastal cities, have sent letters to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butković with proposals how to amend the relevant legislation.
The two mayors emphasise that the liberalisation of the market which has been enabled by existing Road Transport Law, has negatively affected normal street traffic, which is causing problems also for emergency services, according to a press release issued by the Office of the Split Mayor on Wednesday.
Therefore, they urge the government and the transport ministry to amend the legislation whereby local authorities in the cities and towns whose centres are added to the UNESCO World Heritage List can on their own decide on the number of licences issued to taxi drivers and on terms and conditions for providers of taxi services.
The mayors believe that their proposals would contribute to efforts to solve the current problems and therefore they hope that their endeavours will be supported by the competent ministry.
The Road Transport Act, which was passed by the parliament in April 2018, is intended to liberalise taxi services, facilitate licensing and abolish the mandatory tests for drivers for the area they cover.
The government said then that it expected that with the liberalisation of the market the number of taxi drivers would double. At the time their number currently stood at about 3,000, which the government thought was too few for a tourist country such as Croatia. The law was adopted also with an aim to make taxi services cheaper.
Before the passage of the law, the head of the Taxi Drivers Association at the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK), Božo Miletić, said that the government-sponsored bill on road transport favoured Uber and would cause the demise of 3,000 drivers who were registered as small business owners.
More news about taxi services can be found in the Business section.
