An association representing booking platform cab owners has filed a judicial protest against Transport Malta and the Transport Ministry holding them responsible for damages caused by their alleged failure to control blatantly illegal operations in their sector, creating an uneven playing field.

The Light Passenger Operators' Association also demanded immediate action to stop abuses and remedy the situation.

The protest was signed by lawyers Zackariah Esmail and Matthew Paris, who listed a long list of abuses over the past five years and said the authorities had closed their eyes to them.

The association said its members are self-employed people who owned up to four vehicles and received bookings through platforms such as Bolt, Uber and eCabs.

It said that since 2020 the sector had grown considerably but regulations were not enforced and some people were allowed to operate despite violating various rules.  Although they were required to have garages for their vehicles, they handed the authorities false addresses. They used fake vehicle number plates and engaged inexperienced drivers abusively. There were also irregularities in the way they were handed driver tags.

These operators had grown rapidly and unchecked, to the detriment of the operators who operated on the right sides of the law and has seen a steep rise in unfair competition compounded by rising costs, notably higher insurance premia. 

Furthermore, the association said, when Transport Malta finally decided to take some action, it acted drastically against everyone, with a lack of proportionality for those who had always observed the law. 

The association accused the government of having allowed the creation of a network of rampant abuse, illegality and breach of regulations which had destroyed the sector.

It  therefore demanded immediate enforcement of regulations and remedial action in favour of the operators who had always observed the law.