Romanian legislator forbids paid public transportation without a licence

Romanian politicians elected in Deputies Chamber adopted a law project (298 votes for, 2 against and 16 abstentions) which forbids the paid public transportation of people with a car that doesn’t own a valid taxi licence, Romanian news agency Agerpres and economic portal Hotnews inform.

The law hits directly the drivers who adopted the ride-sharing app Uber, which launched on Romanian market in February and allow any driver to be some sort of taxi driver. For the mentioned law project, Romanian Deputies Chamber is the decisions forum.

The law project completes Law38/2003 referring to transportation by taxi or by rented cars and stipulates the physical and juridical persons are to be fined if they publicly transport people by car and don’t have a valid taxi license, as stipulated by art 7 of the same law.

The document also says that public paid people transportation by car is forbidden if the driver doesn’t have a valid taxi licence or a copy of it .

The legislative project was adopted by the Romanian Chamber of Deputies came after Uber, a smartphone app that generated intense controversies all over the world, launched as UberX on Romanian market, in the end of February 2015.

Uber is an app that links, in real time, passengers and drivers which will offer to them paid transportation services. Available for iOS and Android, the app can be downloaded by users, who need to make an account and register a credit card. Afterwards, the user sets the point where he wants to be picked up with the car and the destination.

Uber was subjected to criticism last year due to some security incidents and because it launched in cities around the world without giving attention to the laws on taxi driving.