« Today, we no longer want to work with the Uber and Bolt applications. We do days for not even 60 euros, we get charged for parking for 135 euros, we are like slaves. You travel 5 km to pick up a customer, you drop them off 7 km away, you come back, you have traveled 20 to 30 km for 9 euros, it's impossible. I work ten to twelve hours a day and I don't get through it. You have to say stop. » Like a hundred other VTC (tourist vehicle with driver) drivers, Hamid marched through the streets of Bordeaux this Tuesday, November 26, at the call of the Force Ouvrière union. He drove at a walking pace with his horn blocked, from the Lac district to the Saint-Jean station, the airport, the prefecture…
VTC in Bordeaux, unionized at FO, Sébastien Deville is one of the four organizers of this event which made traffic very complicated for a good part of the day. “We simply claim our rights,” he explains. Uber increased its commission from 25% to 45%, this is not acceptable. A VTC earns the minimum wage and even more, by working sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. This is what I do personally. In addition, every day, we are fined at the station because there is no place to stop, unlike taxis. It's the same at the airport. In Paris, VTCs and taxis have reserved places at the airport, I don't understand why in Bordeaux it's not possible. »
“There are too many of us”
He also denounces the overpopulation of VTC drivers: “There are too many of us in Bordeaux, with 3,000 cards and not enough work for everyone. It is the second VTC community after Paris. We are asking the State to block the cards, only it can manage that. Today, there is no regulation. »
Arriving at Saint-Jean station at around 10 a.m., the demonstration hit a snag: opposed to VTCs, around ten taxi drivers blocked the street. “We are protecting our livelihood!” If they win, they will have the right to park with us,” a taxi claims to the police, who ask him to lift the blockade. The competition between the two corporations is head-on, no one is doing anyone a favor.
“The profession is deteriorating”
“The job is deteriorating due to the change in working conditions with the Uber application, the variable increase in commission,” continues Hamid. It's impossible to work with that. We have a lot of expenses, we pay Urssaf, vehicles, fuel… There are more and more drivers, therefore fewer and fewer trips. Increasing the number of drivers is Uber's objective, it guarantees that the customer always has one near them. There are 50 drivers per square meter, we can't do more, without counting the fake drivers, the attached ones, those who work with someone else's card. We want a numerus clausus, for the profession to be viable. »
A delegation was received by the prefect's chief of staff at the end of the morning. “There was a good level of exchange and listening, this made it possible to usefully guide the reflections already underway within the State services and with taxis, and to understand their expectations”, indicates the entourage of the prefect.
