[size=75:ndipqlk7]novinite December 9, 2009

Bulgaria Municipalities to Decide Maximum Taxi Fares


Bulgaria Minister of Transport, Alexander Tsvetkov, has stated that each municipality will be given the power to decide on maximum taxi charges.

Tsvetkov, speaking on BNT, said that after the relevant law is passed, the Municipalities will each set a limit for taxi fares and this could happen in early 2010. He added that the the law has been uploaded to the website of the Ministry is awaiting a procedure for public discussion.

Meanwhile, Tsvetkov called train transport in Bulgaria the safest form of transport but added that old trains must now be replaced alongside a huge effort to improve the railway infrastructure and track system, to which he added BGN 1 B will be supplied.

Tsvetkov concluded that all payments to railway staff delayed payments will be made this month. He also said that there has been a 7-8% drop in passengers on Bulgarian trains this year and a mammoth 50% reduction in freight.

This has got to be good news

Wow at last a standard fare this will make it easier for all of us I have read so many stories of others being taken for a ride literally

[size=75:533xgmo5]Dnevnik 22 December 2009

Update

Bulgarian govt to curb rip-offs by taxi tariff caps

After authorities were inundated with angry complaints against rip-off rates, Bulgaria Ministry of Transport will introduce a cap on taxi tariffs, according to proposed changes to the auto transport law posted for public discussion on its website.

The maximum tariffs will be set by city councils and will be updated at least once a year.

In Italy, Germany and Spain, companies are required to comply with not only maximum tariffs per kilometre but also maximum duration of the taxi travel.

Ministry experts told Dnevnik that the criteria for the limit on tariffs will be outlined in an ordinance and will be based on average costs of fuel, spare parts as well as drivers’ salaries and social security contributions. Another criterion will be the purchasing power of the population of the respective municipality.

Taxi companies are calling for factoring in the cost of car leasing.

In Sofia, most companies charge between BGN 0.45 to BGN 0.65 per km during the day and BGN 0.70-0.75 during the night.

However, some tariffs range from BGN 2.50 to BGN 3.50 per km, reaching even a jaw-dropping BGN 8. They usually sneak at the airport, around railway or bus stations and major building such as the Palace of Justice in downtown Sofia. The rates are spelled out on a sign on the car window but many customers simply fail to notice them.

The bill does not specify which authority will be responsible for enforcement of the new rules.

Sofia deputy mayor in charge of transport, Lyubomir Hristov, a former executive director of the Automobile Administration Agency, said non-compliant companies should be revoked their permits. He expects seaside municipality will come up with seasonal tariffs.

Roumen Kroumov, chairman of the transport companies union, predicted tariffs for Sofia will be capped at BGN 1.50 per km.

[size=55:19jodihm]Sofia echo 26 July 2010

Sofia intent on imposing caps on cab fares

Sofia city hall planned to introduce ceilings on the amounts that taxi companies were allowed to charge customers, deputy mayor in charge of transport Lyubomir Hristov said on July 26, as quoted by Bulgarian news agency BTA.

The price caps would be made possible by amendments put forward by the Transport Ministry to the Automobile Transportation Act. Any limits would be put in place with the consent of the big cab companies in Sofia, he said.

The amendments envision price limits being imposed by the local authorities, who also license cab companies, and would have to be updated at least once a year or at the request of the Transport Minister.

Hristov said that the price would be determined using a formula that would include vehicle ammortisation, an average weighted price of fuel and even driver salary. The Sofia city hall was already working on drafting several such formulas that could be presented to taxi companies as soon as Parliament passes the amendments, he said.

According to city hall statistics, about 5000 cabs in Sofia had valid licences. The amendments envision fines of 3000 leva for cabs charging more than the ceiling imposed by the local authorities.

In June, the country's competition watchdog rejected the Transport Ministry's proposal on cab price caps, saying that it would only serve as an excuse for taxi companies to institute a price cartel, stifling competition and innovation.

Cab companies charging exorbitant amounts as fare have been repeatedly criticised as creating a poor first impression of Bulgaria among foreign travellers, who are the most likely to be stung by them.

Sound good, bet there will be a lot of taxi drivers upset by this

Oddy

and about time too, i got ripped off on an 8 lev fare that cost me 48 levs from varna airport, even the eu representatives got ripped off on their arrival and were told nothing could be done. so at last they are they are looking at this area where you are really being ripped off. about time too as this does put first time visitors off coming to bulgaria. good for them.

[size=55:2lasx4u5]novinite 30 July 2010

Bulgarian Taxi Driver Arrested for Slapping Drunk British Tourist

A Bulgarian cab driver has been charged with slapping in the face a young British girl in the Golden Sands resort.

The 20-year-old British tourist was found lying on the ground in front of the Astera Hotel in Golden Sands around quarter past midnight, announced the Regional Police Department in the city of Varna.

The police subsequently found that the girl was drunk when she wanted to use a local taxi. However, she thought the price that the driver demanded was BGN 0.20 higher per km than it should be, and she threw her beer in his face.

The 33-year-old taxi driver reacted by slapping her in the face, and leaving her unconscious on the spot. The name of the British tourist, who stayed in the Evksinograd area, is not revealed.

Admin wrote:

she threw her beer in his face.

Still drinking beer in the taxi?

Seems a reasonable reaction on the part of the taxi driver.

Regards, George.

I hate to say this but the British always blame other for their misdemeanor

The British are generally badly behaved abroad - I'm glad I have a Russian passport

Regards, George.

ChrisQBG wrote:

Still drinking beer in the taxi?

She's lucky I wasn't driving it would have been a big slap

From old nessebar into new nessebar, near the oasis hotel, i got charged thirty five leva on my second day of holiday.
Should have known better really.
Meter said 23lv when i got to hotel, driver leaned forward and pressed a bitton on the meter and it changed to 35.
Its better to get the taxis from near the noddy trains as they have fixed prices shown.

My word!!! :Shocked: can you knock someone unconscious with a slap Shame on both of them for such stupid childish behavior. They should both be ashamed of themselves :Scratch head : :Scratch head : :Shocked:

Oddy

[size=55:3s13qk7y]Sofia echo 02 September 2010

Bulgaria presses ahead with plan to put ceilings on taxi fares

Bulgaria’s Cabinet has tabled in Parliament amendments to the Carriage by Road Act that would empower municipalities to set limits on taxi tariffs, in a move intended to end abuses in the industry – but the move already has been opposed by the Commission on the Protection of Competition and some in the taxi industry, who have threatened to blockade Sofia’s streets if the legislation is approved.

Exorbitant tariffs charged by some taxi firms and drivers have been the subject of numerous complaints over the years, especially among foreigners and expatriates in Bulgaria, although it is not only non-Bulgarian-speakers who fall prey to cheating by copycat companies and unscrupulous drivers who charge excessive fees or use special devices to inflate fares.

There have been moves from authorities and from some major players in the industry against abuses, including a raid by police and tax authorities in early summer 2010 against "
pirate"
taxis in Plovdiv, and court actions by large companies such as OK Supertrans against rivals who mislead passengers by mimicking the names and logos of reputable companies.

At the beginning of August 2010, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported that some drivers continued to use "
pumps"
to manipulate their taxi meters.

BNT interviewed a taxi firm executive, Iliya Vassilev, who said drivers in some companies were using "
pumps"
that were operated by various means, sending electronic pulses to taxi meters in various ways, including a remote control device in the driver’s pocket, or buttons linked to the volume button on radios or music players or electronic windows.

"
Maybe some passengers will have noticed how drivers turn up the volume on music, or open and close windows,"
Vassilev said.

Such pumps were usually difficult to find, inspectors said, because the mechanisms customarily were concealed deep in the electronics of the car.

Nikola Chavdarov, of the inspectorate in Sofia, said that inspectors did not have the legal right to dismantle a taxi’s dashboard, for instance. "
It (a pump) can be hidden anywhere,"
he said.

Even if passengers complain about inflated tariffs, inspectors might not arrive in time to prevent the driver removing such apparatuses, BNT said.

However, taxi companies said that they usually took matters into their own hands, fining drivers who were the subjects of complaints. "
A good image among customers is directly linked to their profits,"
according to the BNT report.

Companies said that they routinely fined drivers, including one case of a driver who regularly had been fined about 200 leva a week. However, when asked to show documentation of these fines, the firms said that these were confidential.

Travelling with an odometer, a BNT reporter found some discrepancies between the mileages recorded by taxi meters and the distances recorded by the odometer. While sometimes the distances matched, in other cases there were differences of about 30 per cent.

In July, Sofia’s deputy mayor in charge of transport, Lyubomir Hristov, said that the municipality intended to introduce ceilings on the amounts that taxi companies would be allowed to charge customers.

Any limits would be put in place with the consent of the major taxi companies in Sofia, he said.

The amendments envision price limits being imposed by the local authorities, who also licence cab companies, and would have to be updated at least once a year or at the request of the Transport Minister.

Hristov said that the price would be determined using a formula that would include vehicle ammortisation, an average weighted price of fuel and even the driver's salary. Sofia municipality was already working on drafting several such formulas that could be presented to taxi companies as soon as Parliament approved the amendments, he said.

According to city hall statistics, about 5000 cabs in Sofia had valid licences. The amendments envision fines of 3000 leva for taxis charging more than the ceiling imposed by the local authorities.

In June, the country's competition watchdog rejected the Transport Ministry's proposal on cab price caps, saying that it would only serve as an excuse for taxi companies to institute a price cartel, stifling competition and innovation.

"
Putting a maximum price ceiling on the taxi service would mean that all parties affected would create a cartel among themselves and establish prices which are close to the preceding ones,"
Dnevnik quoted a spokesperson of the Commission for the Protection of Competition as saying.

The report said that the Transport Ministry had requested the opinion of the commission on the matter, and in turn, the commission said that that they "
understand the social aspect of implementing such a measure, but that it would be against established European practices"
.

"
This would negate the initiative from the companies. It will deter them from improving the diversity of their services, and the quality of service,"
the commission said.

Bulgarian-language media reports on September 1 2010 said that taxi companies had said that if Parliament approved the proposed amendments, they would blockade Sofia.