If the project being carried out by the Superintendency of Transportation for take mobile apps off the marketmore than 100,000 drivers would be left without this source of income and at least 8 million passengers would no longer have this option to move.
At present, platforms such as Cabify, which has some 2.5 million users; Uber with 2 million; Free Taxis moves another 2 million; and Picap mobilizes 1.5 million motorcycle users.
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«The blocking bill announces these apps on the web through administrative procedures, prolonged immobilization of drivers’ vehicles for a term of between 1 and 3 months, fines of more than 10 million pesos for citizens who use these platformsamong others”, states José Daniel López, director of Alianza IN, a union that brings together different apps.
Since cabify also publicly rejecting the project and said they have formally submitted comments exposing its dire consequences. “It is highly worrying that on the one hand the Government expresses its intention to issue a regulation of the service, which has even already had working groups in the Ministry of Transport and in which Cabify has been active and permanent; and on the other hand, it announces a bill that would allow the Supertransport to impose disproportionate sanctions against any actor in the platform ecosystem,» Cabify said in a press release.
Will there be reverse?
After learning about the draft of the project, the drivers of transport applications went out to protest and blocked several roads in Bogotá on Monday night. The situation became so tense that even the mayor, Claudia López, assured through her Twitter account that the capital «cannot resist that each disagreement or announcement by the national government ends in anxiety and blockade.»
This Wednesday afternoon, the @MinistroReyes will meet at a work table with the union of drivers and representatives of Apps, to advance in the construction stage of the bill on the sanctioning regime for transport, which will be brought to the Congress of the Republic
– MinTransporte (@MinTransporteCo) January 31, 2023
Due to this situation, this morning the Government announced that it will initiate dialogue tables with drivers of the applications. In this way, the Minister of Transportation, Guillermo Reyes, will meet with representatives of the applications to advance the bill that will be brought to Congress.
Given this announcement, the director of the Alianza In union said that they hope to find a solution.
How much does the mobility applications market move
According to a 2021 study by Fedesarrollo, digital platforms have become increasingly important in the Colombian economy and, in a conservative scenario, it is estimated that their activity represents close to 0.2 percent of GDP.
The research showed that between the digital messaging, home and mobility platforms, it generates income opportunities for nearly 150,000 employees, which constitutes 0.7 percent of the country’s employed population.
In addition, according to the perception of those surveyed, if these platforms did not operate in Colombia, 44 percent would be unemployed, 32 percent would have another independent job, and 14 percent would have formal employment.
Cabify is one of the applications that has the most users.
Vanexa Romero. TIME
How are these collaborators?
The collaborators of the mobility platforms they tend to be younger and have a higher level of education than the average labor force in Colombia.
Specifically, the think tank estimated that 67 percent of workers live in Bogotá, which has an average age of 38 years. In addition, 25 percent of them have a university degree.
Regarding their monthly incomeThe study determines that in November 2020 they received 1.28 million pesos for an average of 44.6 hours of effective dedication per week.
Employees of mobility platforms tend to be younger and have a higher level of education than the average workforce in Colombia
However, it must be taken into account that these collaborators must incur an initial investment (268,000 pesos for mobility) and variable expenses associated with the business (90,000 pesos for mobility).
Regarding the formal status of the platforms, it is estimated that 47 percent are affiliated with pensions. Approximately half of these quotes are made exclusively for the income received from the platforms and an additional 15 percent corresponds to mixed quotes. The percentage of contributors to Affiliation to Occupational Risks (ARL) only reaches 33 percent of the total.
