After Heetch and UberPop, it is the turn of the application Citygo to do about it. This application of carpooling urban, which connects passengers and drivers is now in the viewfinder of the ministry of Transport that the sum of “to stop any illegal practice”.
Launched in 2016, Citygo, available in Paris and its suburbs, Lille, Lyon and Toulouse, claims 300,000 members and 50,000 trips per month. This application connects passengers and drivers through a location system for routes from city centre to suburb or suburb to suburb. The passenger fills in the details of its course and the reserve upstream or in real-time. For his part, the driver, that receives requests, accept those that are suitable for him and can make a detour to find the passenger. The driver and passenger secure all the prices before you commit to the journey, the latter can pay in cash or by credit card via the application.
limited obligations weigh on the driver. It must “be able to attest to at any time of his or her identity in accordance with his / her user account and be able to present permanent identification papers, driving licence, carte grise of the vehicle, proof of insurance,” says Citygo on his site. The platform also says “reserve the right to suspend an account in the case where the driver would use a vehicle of type VTC or taxi, a car or a service and this would raise (sic) a benefit to the driver”.
The VTC denounce unfair competition
Despite the settlement of Citygo, drivers VTC denounce a form of unfair competition. “It’s a HYBRID in disguise”, said Michael Cussy, FO-Capa-VTC. “The trips are not limited and some drivers Citygo do not hide to win 150 to 200 euros per night. Of the sums which they do not declare to the tax authorities. And when you see 25 that are waiting at the airport, do not tell me that it is for a simple carpooling.” Compared to the taxi rides, or VTC, the prices are also very competitive: “up to 8 times less expensive than a taxi or VTC”, argues Citygo on his site. And no need of professional card or license, or to validate an examination for a driver.
what To annoy to death the drivers of VTC, who blame the drivers using this application to multiply the paths and the routes, at the risk of transforming car sharing into a business of transporting people. Fifty of them also gathered on Monday for an hour in front of the headquarters of Citygo, in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine). They were received by the site’s founder, Patrick Robinson. According to Michael Cussy, the latter is committed to “limit to four the number of trips per day per driver, to delete the accounts of those who make more and to require them to declare their income to the tax authorities”.
Callback to the regulation of car –
For its part, the ministry of Transport, having been alerted by the unions of VTC, said Tuesday have pledged “immediate action”. The director of cabinet of the minister of Transport, Elizabeth Terminal, has formally asked the leader of Citygo to stop any illegal practice on its application”, assure-t-on.
The definition of car has been recalled. It is a “journey made by the driver for its own account” ; the “price of the trip not exceeding the scale mileage”, should be “divided by the number of passengers” ; the driver has to pay “his share of the price of the fuel and the toll caused by the journey.” The ministry warned that “any driver who exceeds the limits of the carpool would be subject to sanctions” and that “as operator of the relationship, the leader of this application would also be subject to criminal sanctions”. “We are extremely vigilant it is brought to an end without delay to any practice which would be illegal, the result of this implementation remains very clear,” concludes the ministry. What, perhaps, soothe, taxis and the VTC.
