The taxis: they’ve won again

Written by Riviera Reporter

There was once an adjoint at the mairie in Nice, Me Rouillot, part of whose brief was to deal with the city’s taxi drivers, including complaints against them. One of us attended his vin d’adieu or retirement do and was assured by the tough old lawyer: “I’ve been involved with them for sixteen years and at the end of it all I have to say ... they’ve won.” Well, once again the taxi drivers have gained a victory, this time at national level. In Nice this means a reward for a very undeserving bunch of men (the handful of women at the wheel of cabs seem decent enough).

Called in by Sarkozy to detail reforms which would sustain growth in France, socialist egghead Jacques Attali, famous for his vast range of knowledge (and spectacular dandruff), called for a reform of the taxi trade: notably for their number to be unrestricted and for licences to be granted free of any payment. This led to an immediate nationwide demonstration. In Nice hundreds of cabs from all over the Alpes-Maritimes blockaded the airport. We know little of taxi drivers elsewhere but in Nice their number – 437 – has stayed the same since 1963 and so desirable is the job that licences are sold on for up to half a million euros (including under the table payments). On top of this, Nice’s cabbies are notorious as some of the most dishonest and rudest in Europe. Tell them this and they’ll bluster: as one assured Nice-Matin recently, “No passenger has ever been mistreated after hailing a taxi in this area. Ever.” Attentive readers of these pages will know what to make of that. Sad, though, that the government has climbed down before abusive practices, as in Nice, could be dealt with. And en plus they’ve been given permission to hike their fares.

From Riviera Reporter Issue 126: April/May 2008