The Environment Ministry is circulating a proposed set of rules to regulate companies such as Uber and Cabify, the vehicle used and their drivers.
The new regulations cover electronic invoicing, vehicle age, driving lessons, insurance and the need for a specific type of driving licence for operators.
Environment Minister, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, said the proposed rules have been circulated to concerned parties during period of public consultation and, all being well, should enable the new style operators to become 'street legal' in November this year.
The minister wants the new rules to be made law before the year end, adding that the existing rules for taxi drivers will not be altered.
Drivers from Uber and Cabify will not be allowed to pick up passengers if their vehicles are hailed in the street, can not use taxi ranks and will not be allowed to use public transport lanes in cities.
Fernandes said, "It is a proposal which ends unfair competition and protects consumers.”
Uber and Cabify are considered unfair and illegal competition to Portugal’s taxi drivers by trade union Antral which has demanded a ban on this type of app-based service.
Communist party committee member, Vasco Cardoso, said today that the draft legislation to regulate these new passenger transport platforms is "an unacceptable concession to multinational interests" and a "threat to the survival" of the traditional taxi sector.
Cardoso, of the PCP's political committee, said that the party will present a document to Parliament that supports traditional taxi drivers by making life hard for Uber, Cabify and others, calling on taxi drivers to fight against the proposed new regulations.
The communist view is that thousands of small and medium businesses will go bust as the new breed of transport platform companies, owned by multinationals, move in. The party wants to ban Uber from Portugal and given half a chance would revert to a transport model based on the horse and cart.
Cardoso fears that Uber will take over and that the multinationals "in a few years will capture the entire market in Lisbon, Oporto and Faro at the expense of small and entrepreneurs and at a significant cost.”
Cabify says it is willing to work with the government in the development of the new regulations. In a statement today, the company’s Nuno Santos said "it appears that the government is to take concrete actions to match past statements it has made on the issue of mobility in cities."
The taxi industry’s workers have set a date of October 10th to mount a demonstration in Lisbon in opposition to the new transport service providers and the proposed legislation that aims to legitimise the competition.