Drivers denounce an increase in the platforms' variable commission, which means that customers could pay more for their trip while drivers would be paid less.
“A double punishment for the drivers.” Around a hundred VTC drivers gathered this Tuesday, November 12 at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, before carrying out a snail operation on roads in the region.
Drivers are expressing their dissatisfaction with the growing number of drivers, but especially with the increase in the variable commission applied to journeys by the platforms, which could go up to 45%. A tax which means that a customer will be able to pay more for a trip, while the driver will be paid less.
“It’s a financial loss because it’s our company that bills the customer. So, ultimately, double penalty: the driver who earns less, and the customer who pays more,” denounces Brahim, VTC driver, at the microphone of BFM Paris Île-de-France.
“Today, despite an authority that is there to dialogue, the dialogue is broken with these platforms, which persist in telling us that there is a totem of immunity, it is the remuneration, no touch, and on the other hand, they keep increasing their commissions,” the driver continues.
A “categorization” of customers?
If the details of the application of this new commission still remain unclear, Brahim assures that the platforms have “categorized the customers” to determine “those who have the means, those who do not have the means”.
“What Uber told me clearly: whoever goes to the airport, we will be able to tax him at 45%. And whoever goes to party in a nightclub, he may not have the means to return, well we will give him a slightly cheaper variable commission,” explains Brahim.
After gathering at the airport, the drivers took the A1 and the A86 towards Aubervilliers, where one of Uber's headquarters is located. “It’s there that they recruit as many drivers as possible. It’s the center of precariousness, and it absolutely must stop.”
For road users north of Paris, traffic is expected to be difficult this Tuesday morning, even though the Sytadin barometer records more than 500 km of cumulative traffic jams shortly before 9 a.m.
But VTC drivers do not intend to stop in their mobilization and plan to renew their operations. “Black Tuesday, Black Wednesday… Tomorrow is the Rungis MIN, we are calling on all drivers to come at 5 a.m., and we will not stop our movement.”
The drivers, who are “in the process of setting up an inter-union”, also announce a “hardening” of the movement in other cities in France.
Clémence Renard with Laurène Rocheteau
