According to the same source, during this month of September, the PSP arrested five taxi drivers, aged between 30 and 65, joining a list of 15 arrests that had already been made between March and August of this year.
“These arrests arise from the search for information and the perception of a practice that has proven to be increasingly recurrent and in a certain way crystallized within passenger transport through the taxi service, and which negatively feeds the perception of the entire universe of customers who use these forms of transports, the vast majority of them tourists who travel to Lisbon”, explains a note released by Cometlis.
The PSP also states that the vehicles used to commit the crime of speculation were “cautiously seized”, in order to prevent new crimes of the same nature.
The detainees have already been present at the Public Prosecutor's Office, Local Instance of Petty Crime, and some have a history of committing this same crime.
“The PSP will continue to invest efforts in this criminal framework, aiming to prevent the recurrence of misleading practices by these commercial operators”, the PSP note also highlights.
I have been coming to Lisbon monthly for the past 2 years, and I have noticed that taxi drivers are increasingly doing this. I have also noticed this more and more in the dense tourist-spots in Lisbon, such as Praça Comercio main taxi stand.
On a recent visit with family, for the very first time, I had a rude and very unpleasant taxi driver refuse to take the request for a trip from this location to the my hotel at the top of Avenida Liberdade. (Just to clarify, it was 11:30 am and my 2 kids and I had just done some shopping, so by no means a drunk, unruly fare).
His reasoning was that this was too short, and therefore needed €40.00 to do this trip. (In general it costs me about €10.00).
At this same spot it was clear that 4-5 other drivers were not going take us either, so we walked 300 metres and took another taxi. It was clear to me that these drivers had formed their own little 'mafia' at this location and were scamming the many tourists in the area in need of a taxi.
This behaviour is unacceptable, and it takes a few weeks of it to really spoil the reputation of the city and that over the many excellent and hardworking drivers. It also pushes clients into using Uber and similar, which the taxi drivers are complaining about.
The Municipal and Traffic Police should clamp down hard on these practices.
By Tony Williams from Other on 03 Oct 2023, 10:38
...and that's why I use only Uber.
By Lenka from Algarve on 04 Oct 2023, 06:14