TESTIMONY.”We don't understand why we are kicked out”, taxi drivers on the verge of financial asphyxiation

Marcel Courtet has been a taxi driver for 12 years in La Ciotat. He invested 200,000 euros, his life savings, to pay for his license. Today with the reform of health care and competition from VTC, its future is bleak. This is the reason for his mobilization today.

Taxis are blocking the roads around Marseille this Monday, December 2, 2024 to protest against measures linked to the new Health Insurance convention. The main demands concern a significant reduction in mileage rates for transporting seated patients and the obligation to use health carpooling, which directly affects their income. Marcel Courtet, taxi driver in La Ciotat, is one of the thousand drivers present in Lançon de Provence to demonstrate their anger against the health care reform. The taxi federations have been negotiating this health transport reform for a year.

A taxi driver who picks up patients, “does not take charge of the goods”, This is what the demonstrators also want to say, there is a support role which is not taken into account in the price proposed by the Cnam.

“This is because there are more and more people who are older and who are more and more sick. So in fact, we are just fulfilling our part of the market, we are doing our job. There are more and more medical races so it costs more and more for the CPAM. But it’s not us who should be blamed, it’s not our fault.”

For Marcel Courtet, injustice and incomprehension reign. “OWe don't understand why we are kicked out. I have been doing this job for 12 years. 12 years that I have met sick people who undergo radiotherapy, chemotherapy because they have cancer and all that, it's on a daily basis.”

Behind the race, there is empathy, but we must also be able to accept, “cIt's not easy for them, it's not easy for us. Because for us, when we have 10 customers who tell us about their suffering after the tenth customer in the day out of empathy, it's complicated for us”.

For taxi drivers, like Marcel Courtet, it is sometimes difficult to no longer see a patient, or to see them progress through their illness. “OWe do this job as best we can while trying to take care of our patients and we do our job well, there are more and more patients who are elderly and who need this type of transport. . Some have a psychological shock after learning of an illness, and then we support them until the end. We see the progression of the illness, sometimes we see them moving towards recovery and sometimes it doesn't go in the right direction, and we support them until the end. And it's very hard because in 12 years, we have sympathized with some, and we see them leave, sometimes, it's hard.”

When he started his taxi career, Marcel Courtet knew that VTCs were already authorized. “Dfor 10 years, we have let VTCs and Uber pass, we have demonstrated, but the government has left them in place. HASWith the applications, they took on the same customers as us. DSo, now that we have lost almost 90% of our customers in small towns, we no longer have a traditional taxi ride, we only have medical services.

Until then, taxis managed to do well. “Now that we have more than medical, the Cnam will cut prices by almost half. That is to say that we are at one euro 60 to go to 90 cents per km. Which means that we really lose 40% of turnover. Except that today, if we lose 40% of turnover, we are better off. We won't be able to continue because we will work at a loss“.

A daily struggle, against competition deemed “unfair”, but authorized by the State. “They don't have a license to buy. So obviously every day, there are new ones. And they don't do medical transport. So, they take all the customers from us, not to mention that, on top of that, They have a free rate, that is to say, they set the rates.”

While this health care reform has been in the works for a while, the status quo is about to end. ” Normally the convention is re-evaluated every five years, but with the Olympic Games this year, we had a convention for one year, a sort of extension. They were afraid that we would screw up the B… during the Olympic games. And now, they tell us, 'we don't even want to negotiate with you anymore, that's the way it is, not any other way'. And we say 'But it won't be, we won't be able to survive'. And they don't care. They tell us, that's how it is. So there we have more choice now.” The lack of dialogue is the most stressful for taxi drivers who fear losing everything.

“I'm not going to lose €200,000 of license value that I paid in 10 years”, announces Marcel Courtet, somewhat resigned, but also angry. “I'm just realizing that I risk losing an investment of 10 years, of 200,000 euros. It's like you, if we told you you buy an apartment with 20 years of credit, then after 20 years, the State tells you I'm making a law and I'm getting it back. Are you happy? Are you going to be angry? How are you going to be? Well, this is what we are currently experiencing. People don’t understand, but that’s it.”

The cost of living is increasing, and so is the price of gasoline.

“We pay €1000 for gas per month. We pay all the charges. With all these charges, how do you expect us to get by? They want to take away 60% from us altogether. We arrive at 95 cents instead of €1.80 per kilometer. How do you want it to be viable? OTraditional taxi work has been taken away from us, if medical taxi work is taken away from us, what do we have left? There's nothing left. And so we lose our license because we're not going to sell them. So my retirement is going to go badly in a few years.”