Uber Law now in force
The Portuguese government’s new laws regulating electronic taxi platforms has come into force after two years of controversy and opposition from Portugal’s taxi associations.
The so-called “Uber Law” came into force on 1 November but there are still doubts around the regulations covering taxi service platforms and how they can operate.
There are still some aspects that are unclear and are causing concern for some drivers and even driving schools.
On the side of driving instructors who are responsible for training taxi drivers, they complain about a lack of clarity around the skills and curriculum that trainee taxi drivers should have so that they can incorporate the training into the various driver course modules.
The law foresees that the Government must define some details around taxi driver training as well as the duration in terms of hours of a course and the modules that should be taught.
The course should have a minimum of 50 hours of driving and theoretical and practical parts. The law also defines the way in which driving schools should design manuals for trainers.
But the association that represents driving schools says it has concerns because it should be the IMT (Portuguese Transport and Mobility Institute) have to define if trainers and instructors are capable or not of producing the manuals and training dossiers.
António Reis, vice-president of the National Association of Driving Education and Instructors (ANIECA) which represents companies that operate driving schools in Portugal says that the law establishes that: “trainers should have the skills that the IMT deems adequate to the matters and materials they teach.”
The problem, says Reis, is that the “level of skills and curriculum material has not yet been defined and driving schools have been left in the dark.”