Tensions and altercations between taxis and VTC in Toulouse: the VTC driver responds
Following an altercation broadcast on social networks between a taxi and a VTC driver, tension is high in Toulouse. The VTC driver, accused of having insulted the taxi and broadcast his image on social networks, gives his version of the facts.
On January 14, around 11:45 p.m., a verbal altercation took place between a taxi driver and a VTC driver, in front of the Matabiau station in Toulouse. A new episode of strong tensions between certain drivers and taxis for several months, even years. In his version, the taxi driver argued that the VTC driver had insulted him copiously. He also accuses him of having broadcast his image on social networks, through a video that we were able to obtain (read La Dépêche du Midi of January 17). The taxi driver filed a complaint for this.
” Before I started filming, the taxi insulted me because of my race and my religion”
Tuesday, January 17following the publication of the article, the VTC driver implicated, who recognized himself, contacted us. He wants to give his version of the facts. “Just before I start filming our altercation, the driver insulted me because of my race and my religion. I filed a complaint for this”. The copy of the complaint has come to us.
“I was present in a personal capacity, not to solicit customers, as the taxi says”
For the taxi driver, the VTC driver was “soliciting” customers when the altercation broke out. According to Fouad, the VTC driver, he was present in front of the Matabiau station “in a personal capacity”, with his vehicle parked “in the parking lot of the station”. “I was there, and I saw a lady that the taxis were turning back because she had a pet,” he told the police when he filed a complaint. Fouad then informed the lady that she could be picked up by a driver, via an order form or a reservation application. “And that’s when the taxi driver started insulting me.”
A second complaint from the VTC driver for “harassment”
Fouad, beyond this incident, also filed a complaint for “harassment”, “proposed or repeated compounds having as their object or effect a deterioration in living conditions affecting health”, a complaint that we were also able to consult. In this complaint, he mentions “threats” that led to “health problems”. Following a particularly spectacular accident which he suffered on avenue de Fronton in September 2022 with other VTC drivers, he claims that taxi drivers “wished he was dead”.
“I got my taxi card in 2022. But the taxis in place give me a spoke in the wheels”
Fouad explains that he has “always defended the cause of VTC drivers”, since 2015 and the arrival of reservation platforms, which has earned him “hate from taxi drivers”. “I got my taxi card in 2022. Since then, the taxis I contact tell me that I will never be part of this profession, that they will put a spoke in my wheels. They spread the word among themselves. I have also written several times to communities, to the prefecture, to consular chambers. Without answer. We are let down, we are left to fend for ourselves in this climate of insecurity. “It’s a love and hate affair with taxis. Many know me and appreciate me, others less, he discovers. I would not want these tense relations to continue”.