Dozens of taxi drivers who have been operating for years in the city of Elbasan rose in protest this Wednesday. They object to unfair competition from electric taxis.

They indicate that they are on the verge of bankruptcy, as electric taxis offer a lower price. Traditional taxi drivers demand that the Municipal and Traffic Police take measures to respect the locations of licensed taxis.

“These keep us in the current places that we have been serving for years, plus we have status in this location. We are not without an address. We are not against the electric service because tomorrow I can change the vehicle as the time demands that cars without pollution are needed. But the problem is that the municipality, when it licenses these, must also designate the places as other cities have”, says a taxi driver.

“We are being bankrupted, they work a little below cost and we have to say that. We have complained and they do not give us a solution. Now they are waiting for a conflict to happen so that they come, we are waiting for the municipality to react, to provide a solution”, says another taxi driver.

In Elbasan, 70 people work as taxi drivers, and they pay every obligation required by law. But with the introduction of the electric taxi service, at a somewhat lower price, it causes the latter to be out of work.

“We work in turn, we have for many years, and the reason for the turn is not to have taxi problems with each other. And the customer is aware, even to the one who has the turn, and they don’t want to work in the turn either”, says a taxi driver.

If their demands continue to fall on deaf ears, the taxi drivers announced that they will escalate the protests.