Second day of taxi demonstration in Lyon, Paris joins the movement – 03/12/2024 at 12:25

Parisian taxis joined a mobilization on Tuesday against a reduction in the price of patient transport, which promises to be lower than the day before, while CRS intervened around Lyon to “liberate” blocked traffic accesses.

In the Lyon metropolitan area, “following the intervention of the police”, three traffic points blocked by taxi drivers were “lifted” in the north towards Paris and in the south, written in a message on X the Rhône prefecture, which had shortly before requested the CRS.

Three “partial blockage points” around the metropolis “remain active with a free lane of traffic”, however, adds the prefecture.

On Monday, more than 1,500 taxis in the region participated in blockades around the Lyon metropolitan area, to protest against an agreement currently being negotiated with Health Insurance including lower pricing for the transport of patients, according to the Federation of independent taxis of the Rhône (FTI69).

In Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, blocking operations were also carried out on Monday by taxi drivers, at the entrances to Toulon, at the Bandol tollbooth and at that of Lançon-de-Provence, one of the most important on the A7.

On Tuesday the movement spread to Paris, where nearly a thousand taxis demonstrated in the morning near the National Assembly.

Arriving in convoys from the Paris region and further afield, they also slowed down traffic on major roads such as the A13 motorway (west). Nearly 500 kilometers of traffic jams were recorded around 9 a.m. in the region, an unusual figure for the Île-de-France road management.

Between firecrackers and fireworks, taxis occupied the Esplanade des Invalides and asked to be received by parliamentarians or the Ministry of Health, said Walid Hanida of the Team Taxi collective, at the origin of the demonstration.

The situation became tense around 9 a.m. with the start of a pallet fire and the arrival of riot police on the esplanade.

“It’s always the independents who are paying the price. We are far from being responsible for the hole in Social Security!”, underlined Misselie Michel, 43, taxi driver in Plessis-Bouchard (Val d’Oise).

In the suburbs, VTCs have taken over ordinary shopping and medical transport now represents 100% of its turnover, with ten to twelve hours of work per day, she explained.

– Conditions “not manageable” –

In the Lyon region, mobilization was less on Tuesday morning, even in the opinion of the striking taxi drivers.

“We cannot afford to strike for long, for some of our customers it is vital that they are transported, those who have dialysis, chemotherapy,” Pascal Wilder, a taxi driver, told AFP. 44 years old, installed in front of the Edouard Herriot hospital in Lyon, with a few dozen fellow demonstrators.

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 transport, under penalty of having to advance the costs and being reimbursed only on the basis of the shared transportation. Patients must also be treated in less than 45 minutes and by geographic area with a detour kilometer limit per patient.

In 2023, more than 40,000 taxis were approved to transport sick people, according to Health Insurance, or almost three quarters of taxis in France.

If the new conditions come into force, Eric, a taxi driver in western Lyon, who makes half of his turnover from medical transport, estimates that his business would no longer be profitable.

“They (the government) will be forced to make concessions, huge margins will be lost, otherwise they will end up with patients who will remain without transport, it will not be manageable,” worries he said, in front of the Edouard Herriot hospital.