They only know the nicknames of their clients: “Kalach”, “Al Pacino” or “Sheitan” (Satan). After the murder of one of their colleagues by a 14-year-old boy, Marseille VTC drivers are demanding better security of the platforms, and firstly the verification of the identity of customers.
This Friday, around a hundred gathered in Marseille to express their anger. In front of their shiny sedans, parked in double file in the Old Port, they all bear witness to the same incivility, refusals to pay, threats and today fear, after the death of Nessim Ramdane. This 36-year-old father was killed on Friday by his client, a young hitman recruited for a “contract” against a backdrop of drug trafficking.
VideoShooting murder in Marseille: the alleged mastermind denounces a hitman… aged 14
“Obviously we are afraid… We work under stress, under pressure, under threats,” says Houari Benali, president of the Union of Marseille VTC drivers, who initiated the rally.
Cancellation control
The approximately 3,000 VTC drivers in Marseille mostly work with different platforms, Uber, Heetch or even Bolt, that of Nessim Ramdane.
The latter is particularly blamed, with drivers accusing him of not carrying out “any checks, by not asking for any ID or bank card”. “As a result, the complaints go unanswered because the customers are not identified,” says Mr. Benali. “Bolt is being singled out because it is on this application that there are the most problems”, affirms Nicolas Pascal, representative of Force Ouvrière of VTC Marseille, who nevertheless emphasizes that “the demands of the unions have been swept aside by all platforms during the latest discussions.”
Riadh has only been a VTC driver for six months but is already thinking of giving up. Like all the drivers interviewed by AFP, he deplores the conditions imposed by the platforms: “we know nothing about the customer, while they know everything about us. Me, when I accept a customer, he has my license plate, my photo, he sees the car moving on the map… When we arrive, it’s a Kinder surprise, we don’t know what we find . They are called The shark (shark) or Come on… We can see that some people are strange, but once there we can’t cancel, otherwise we risk problems…”.
In addition, explains Riadh, who like his colleagues refuses to give his last name, the platforms count the number of trips canceled by drivers. “The more you cancel, the fewer races we offer you or less profitable races.”
“We can shoot you!” »
Haikel has been VTC for a year. And already its acceptance rate has fallen to 26%. “I avoid certain districts, the 14th and 15th (known as “northern districts”), and now after what happened, I hesitate to go to the 3rd”, the district where Nessim was killed Ramdane. “Bolt has already sent me alerts about my rate, I know that soon they will call me to tell me that they no longer want to work with me. But I have children… When I think that I gave up a permanent contract to do that, that I bought my vehicle…” he says with bitterness.
Asked by AFP, Bolt claims to “do everything possible to guarantee the safety of drivers and passengers”, while recalling that it is subject to “legal requirements” which complicate “the collection of personal data”.
“In front of us we have real thugs, or young teenagers who have no awareness of right and wrong, who are on drugs,” says a driver who refuses to give his identity. “One day, I took on young people who didn’t want to pay me. I insisted, kindly, they replied: Who do you take us for? Are you threatening us? We can shoot you ».
Others mention a colleague recently hit with a box cutter by a customer, or this VTC driver who last year took two Kalashnikov bullets, intended for his customer. “How many times do we have to go around to collect the recipe (drug trafficking) ? We know well that multipoint races (with several stops) are often used for that or for deliveries. How many times we have delivered weapons and we don’t know…”.
