Business | From 2019, the taxi service in Sofia can be at a minimum price

© Julia Lazarova

In January, the metropolitan city council could accept a minimum price for taxi service in the capital – said the vice chairman of the Zafir Zarkov municipality transport committee in Dnevnik. Today, taxi companies have demonstrated for the second time in one year, asking the municipality to meet its legal obligation and set minimum rates.

Motorists want the minimum rates to be 98 cents per day and 1.14 leva per night to be able to park in 2% of the blue zone, 4% of the green and be able to move in the bus lanes when they Carry a pbadenger, newspaper "Kiril Kirilov, secretary of the National Union of Taxis, who organized the demonstrations.The union was established in June with about 150 convoys, said Kirilov.

The reason why operators want to raise prices is that most of them lead to prices lower than the cost of service. "There is price dumping and with higher but real service prices, this practice will be phased out," he said.

The obligation for municipalities to set minimum and maximum rates for taxi services is enshrined in the Road Transport Act. Prior to 2011, the municipality of Sofia only set the maximum thresholds of 1.30 / 1.60 BGN. "This has been done to limit the unfair practices of some drivers to drive at much higher prices," Zarkov said.

According to him, the options for the minimum daily rate are three to 58 st., Or the lowest on the market, between 77 and 79 st and about 1 lev. To increase the price of the service, which corresponds to the demand of the operators, the majority of the city council will also seek to obtain the support of the opposition, explained Zarkov. The advisor also pointed out that 80% of taxi drivers now travel at a price below 1 leva.

The options will be discussed by the city councilors and Zarkov expects that a specific proposal will be submitted by the end of December. It will be voted at the council meeting in January.

According to him, the municipality can not allow taxis to circulate in the bus lanes, because a modification of the law on the road traffic is necessary for this purpose. At the same time, the municipality regularly reviewed parking requests submitted by taxi companies. They were over 300 last year. Zarkov pointed out that this process is "uninterrupted" but depends on the type of company that has to do it.