Carriers threaten with protests

The Union of Carriers and Road Builders (UTD) has threatened with nationwide protests unless the Government take steps until May 24 to improve the situation of licensed carriers in the country, Info-Prim Neo reports. At its general assembly on Friday, UTD decided to establish a task-force to deal with the issues that its members have been faced with lately, including unfair competition from unauthorized carriers, which is reportedly responsible for starving the authorized carriers of 200 million lei annually, and the Government's failure to offer 3.5 million lei in compensations to the carriers after granting fare exemptions to some groups of passengers. “What happens today in this sector is irresponsibility on the part of the Government. It is impossible to bear it any longer. Everything in the public transportation sector has degenerated to metastasis”, declared UTD president Vladimir Florea. The Government's failure to take firm action against unauthorized passenger transportation was criticized by UTD as impotency and excessive concern for political games. Attending the event, Transportation Deputy Minister replied that the ministry was acting within the limits of the law and if amelioration was sought, then the law needed to be changed and additional funds identified. “Problems that have accumulated over many years cannot be solved in a short period of time”, argued Boris Gherasim. At the same time, Sergiu Rotaru, deputy chief of the Traffic Police, said that traffic officers cannot stop every vehicle to check when passengers were carried without authorization, but a solution could be increasing fines for such violations. Recently, the 37 UTD member operators sent a letter to Parliament, the Government and the Ministry of Transportation requesting action against unauthorized carriers and demanding higher fares for regular international routes. UTD complains that nothing has been done to meet their demands.