Demonstration of taxi drivers in Lyon against the agreement currently being negotiated with Health Insurance for the transport of seated patients, December 2, 2024 (AFP / OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE)
Hundreds of taxi drivers disrupted traffic around Lyon on Monday before converging on a town square, where some could spend the night, to protest against an agreement currently being negotiated with Health Insurance including per-tax pricing. reduction in the transport of patients.
Disruptions also took place around Toulon, at a toll on the A7 northwest of Marseille and another in Bandol (Var).
Fog horn, firecracker, fireworks and horn: at the end of the day in the center of Lyon, nearly 200 drivers converged at the wheel on Place Bellecour, noted an AFP journalist.
“The day went well, no altercation. We made as many people aware as possible,” says Abdel Green, president of the Federation of Independent Taxis of the Rhône (FTI69).
“This evening, as planned, we are bivouacing on Place Bellecour, and we are going to see (…) if we sleep there, or if we put an end to the movement. It will depend on the vote of the demonstrators”, once every taxis on the square, he adds to AFP.
– More than 1,500 taxis –
According to him, more than 1,500 taxis participated throughout the day in blockages or slowdowns at several access points in the Lyon metropolitan area.
Before dawn, with hazard lights on, some 150 vehicles had parked on an interchange west of Lyon, without completely blocking traffic, noted an AFP journalist. “Taxis on strike”, “medical taxi in danger”, we could read on some.
Among them, Nicolas Galliot, 43, from Clermont-Ferrand. At the head of a taxi company, medical transport represents 60 to 70% of his turnover. “But for country taxis, it can go up to 100%,” he specifies.
If this agreement is adopted, it will be “to the detriment of my employees, the value of our licenses, but above all patients,” he says.
In 2023, more than 40,000 taxis were approved to transport sick people suffering from pathologies ranging from cancer to psychiatric illnesses, according to Health Insurance, or almost three quarters of taxis in France.
In order to make 300 million euros in savings on this medical transport, the Barnier government, threatened with censorship, wishes to force taxis and medical transporters to negotiate measures with Health Insurance, under penalty of imposed price reductions.
In addition, a decree implementing the Social Security budget for 2024 provides that a patient can no longer refuse, with some exceptions, shared medical transport, under penalty of having to advance the costs and being reimbursed only on the basis shared transportation. Patients must also be treated in less than 45 minutes, and by geographic area with a kilometer detour limit per patient.
Taxi drivers take part in a road blocking demonstration on December 2, 2024 in Lyon (AFP / OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE)
“Not only are we going to wait a very long time to fill the car, we are going to make endless rounds, but also we are going to deteriorate the service that we have put in place for years with patients,” according to Abdel Green .
Coming from Puy-de-Dôme, Isère, Drôme, Loire and Haute-Loire, taxi drivers blocked the lanes of the A7, A43 and A46 motorways for several hours, causing several dozen kilometers of traffic jams. or slowdowns at the entrance to the Lyon metropolitan area.
– “Caught by the throat” –
Sabrina Pena, 51, a taxi driver for 27 years in Lyon, carries out 10% of her activity with patients. She regrets the drop in prices because “for several years everything has increased, the price of fuel, vehicles, tolls, the price of bottled water for customers”. “They know that we are caught by the throat because we are all in debt,” she says in front of the Edouard Herriot hospital.
Disturbances in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur were also noted, particularly in the morning at the entrance to Toulon and which ended at the start of the afternoon.
Taxi drivers block the toll of the A7 motorway in Lançon-de-Provence, December 2, 2024 in Bouches-du-Rhône (AFP / Christophe SIMON)
Some 800 taxis from Marseille and the region also blocked, until around 7 p.m., the payment lanes of the Lançon-de-Provence toll, one of the most important on the A7, about forty km to the north. west of Marseille, according to the operator Vinci.
On the other hand, at the Bandol tollbooth, all lanes except one were blocked by around 150 taxis, causing “significant traffic difficulties” towards Toulon and Marseille, the Var prefecture indicated shortly after 7:00 p.m.
