Supposed to help solve the daily ordeal of transport for Tunisians, mobile applications dedicated to individual transport create controversy and raise serious suspicions of violations in the silence of the government
In a context of unprecedented multidimensional crisis in Tunisia, affecting the political, economic and social aspects, the average citizen must face daily complications of various kinds, including that of means of transport, dictated by the need to move for one reason or another. other, work, care, studies, shopping, etc.
It is, in fact, an ordeal that is one of the major concerns that must be resolved several times a day.
With the increasingly pronounced weakness and mediocrity of public transport in the country, the use of individual taxis and the mobile applications that go with them, is becoming an essential choice for a large segment of the population, who have no no choice but to request this service, supposed to be accessible to all.
However, the reality is quite different, in this small country where the number of taxis for Greater Tunis is estimated according to official sources at 16,190 vehicles (this figure would be below reality according to unofficial sources which review the number of vehicles to more than 25,000 taxis) to transport an average of more than 1.5 million citizens, according to figures from the Ministry of Transport.
“In Tunisia, we are perhaps the only country in the world where the destination of a taxi is determined by the will of the driver, rather than that of the customer,” says Ines, a young employee of a foreign company established in Tunisia. Tunisia, located at Lake Tunis (one of the economic centers of the capital“.
“Most of the time, I have to resort to a taxi booked with the Bolt app or InDrive, which cost me a blind, to get to work on time, but it saves me the endless wait and the eternal “this is not on my route” that the taxi drivers throw at me. Between these evils, I am spoiled for choice (according to a Tunisian expression)“, she declares with a hint of exasperation.
The Bolt and InDrive mobile applications certainly offer the guarantee of a taxi available at any time and almost everywhere in the metropolis of Tunis, but this is done at prices, to say the least, exorbitant for an already well eroded wallet. to the hilt by the high cost of living in a country whose economy is still weighed down by crises.
For Aslen, a young digital artist, employee of a video game company located in the northern suburbs of Tunis, using these mobile taxi booking applications is “a necessary evil“ according to his expression.
“With public transport far from available, punctual and comfortable (especially during peak hours and with the coming summer) the choice is quickly made, I travel by taxi reserved with Bolt or InDrive for 3 to 4 days per week, with a dedicated monthly budget of more than 350 dinars, a significant portion of my salary, God knows I would as much like to invest this sum otherwise, but do I have a choice?“.
In another testimony, Karim, a secondary education teacher, said that apart from the overpriced pricing offered by mobile applications, he criticizes “the ambient lack of professionalism, insofar as at peak times, it there is no taxi available, we see them circulating but without registration and, if by some miracle, I find a taxi, it refuses me the service by referring me to the Bolt application to be able to move me, in other words, they oblige the citizen to a kind of conditional sale, without the possibility of filing a complaint, because it would just be a waste of time for a result that is far from guaranteed, with the inaction of the State“.
And to add, “I am ready to take transport without any discussion, even if it leaves something to be desired in terms of comfort, which is a rather strong term in a country like ours, if, as a citizen, I I have access to public transport that respects human dignity in any way, I would be the first to use it“.
According to several testimonies collected from several people, the Bolt application in particular, practices fuzzy and abusive pricing costing triple, quadruple, or even more compared to the usual rates charged for the same trip by taxi on the meter.
A taxi driver who preferred to remain anonymous told Anadolu that one of his colleagues who retrained as a “Bolt taxi” charged 48 dinars for a trip between the southern suburbs and the northern suburbs. of Tunis, in a rush hour, “a small fortune and a blow for a citizen living in a country whose minimum wage [Guaranteed minimum wage] is 3 figures” he quips with a smile that expressed no amusement .
“Me too, I could have taken advantage of a good margin on the price of each trip, having a mobile phone with a 25 gigabyte prepaid internet package, but I don’t eat that bread, I’m close to the retirement and I do with what I earn every day, it is sometimes painful and tiring with endless traffic jams on the access roads to the capital, and degraded infrastructures, but with each work, its difficulties, isn’t it? right?“ he adds.
Among the testimonies collected, unease was manifest and almost unanimous in denouncing the government’s inaction in the face of this phenomenon of mobile applications, abusive for wallets, which has grown in scale since 2019, for the Bolt application, which , according to the magazine “Al-Katiba” (independent), managed to attract 2,200 taxi drivers in just 2 months, in the same year.
In its investigation of the Bolt phenomenon in Tunisia, the magazine points to the irregularities and legal vagueness surrounding the status and abuses, even the “countless transgressions” that taint the activities of this company in Tunisia.
Officially, and legally, Bolt taxis are illegal in Tunisia, as their obscure pricing methods violate current legislation and cause a “dismantling of the taxi market in Tunisia” in favor of a monopoly of the company, which deregulated the tariffs in force, without any legal basis, according to Al-Katiba.
The same source goes even further by raising suspicions of tax evasion and money laundering with income and profits declared to be doubtful to say the least, not to mention transactions that violate Tunisian financial laws, all in silence and amazing inaction from the authorities of a country that urgently needs cash.
“Al-Katiba” even revealed that Bolt made its user database available to an Israeli advertising company. In this same context of the protection of users’ personal data, the president of the National Authority for the Protection of Personal Data (INPDP), Chawki Gaddes, reported breaches of the organic law on the protection of personal data committed by the Tunisian branch of the shared mobility company Bolt.
“Worldwide, the application does not allow the driver to have access to the personal data of users […]. He doesn’t know the Bolt user’s name or phone number. However, in Tunisia, the driver knows the name of the person, his WhatsApp number, and cases of harassment have even been reported. Offenses at all levels,” said the president of the INPDP on the airwaves of radio Shems FM (private). A complaint has since been filed.
More than ever, taxi apps are subject to controversy, according to testimonies and revelations from surveys, which have degraded a landscape already damaged by the political and economic crises, in a country which has struggled to stay afloat since the 2011 revolution.
Several voices have been rising for a few months to call for more action on the part of the government and to boycott this type of transport, as a last resort, in the hope of being heard and bringing prices down to more reasonable thresholds. .
