“Clashes” between taxi drivers and their counterparts using smart public transit apps in Casablanca have increased in recent weeks to “fights” amid questions about the authorities’ role in settling the dispute.
Digital app owners have complained about the “attacks” they face every time from taxi drivers in the city, and industry professionals have argued that these apps are “unlicensed” and are not allowed to practice professional activities without obtaining a license from civil authorities.
In recent days, many tapes have circulated documenting skirmishes between taxi drivers and smart apps on the streets of Casablanca, bringing the topic of smart apps for personal transportation back to the forefront of public debate.
The smart app drivers have therefore demanded that the security authorities start investigating the “attacks” they are subjected to on a daily basis, emphasizing that the police have the right to enforce the law and punish offenders, rather than leaving room for “the personal judgment of public transport professionals.”
The government announced earlier through the Minister of Transport and Logistics its initiative to regulate transport with modern technology to give way to competition in the sector, especially taxis, but this type of modern modes of transport was not created until the time.
On this occasion, the national secretary of the Democratic Multimodal Transportation and Logistics Organization, Mustafa Shaun, said that “these distributed tapes are outdated”, stressing that “violence is unacceptable in all cases, but the government must be held accountable.”
Chaun added in a statement to electronic newspaper Hespress that “the legal vacuum has caused skirmishes because the apps are not licensed by the authorities because they don’t have permanent jobs in Morocco.”
The same professional actor continued that “Laws regarding public transport are bypassed in Morocco as they go back to the Dahir of 1963, which calls for the need to open public debate in order to keep pace with existing technological transformations and thus reform transport. a sector that is suffering a lot.”
The National Secretary General of the Democratic Organization for Multimodal Transportation and Logistics warned the government of “the prevailing social tension among transport professionals in light of the use of these smart applications and to move between cities, which prompted large taxi drivers to protest,” noting that “reorganization of the sector will allow disputes to be managed” on list and increase its attractiveness by cutting off revenue from permits.”
