A City Hall of São Paulo is launching a platform transport individual passengers. The application mobizapSP promise lower fares for passengers and higher compensation for drivers compared to private apps, such as Uber and 99. As of this Thursday, the 9th, the app will start registering drivers; There is still no forecast for opening to the public.
According to the Municipal Department of Mobility and Traffic, the application has benefits for the population and drivers. Passengers will not be charged the so-called dynamic tariff, which is applied when there are more travel requests than available drivers in a given area.
In the case of drivers, the administration fee they will have to pay will be fixed in the amount of 10.95%. Private companies charge between 14.9% and 19.9%. The City Hall has not yet disclosed the amounts that will be paid per kilometer driven.
The application also foresees the adoption of specific safety rules, among them, the production of a photograph (selfie) of users and drivers at registration and the presence of a panic button that directly triggers the Military Police. Ricardo Teixeira, municipal secretary of Mobility and Traffic, says that the application is an alternative to the platforms that already operate in the city. “There is a fragility of the public power in the control of private applications, which points to the need for a public application”, he said during a press conference in São Paulo.
mobizapSP is aimed at trips that start in the city of São Paulo, with a variable destination according to each client. The project was developed through a public tender won by the 3C Consortium, which demanded a lower percentage on the value of the rides.
Available on Android and iOS operating systems, the app requires a simple registration with personal data and the option to act as a driver, passenger or both. Rides can be paid for via cash, credit, debit and credit cards in the app.
Application CPI demanded better working conditions
The use of transport by apps is advancing at a fast pace in the main Brazilian capitals. One of the indicators is the number of professionals who act as drivers. The number of Brazilians working for transport or goods applications reached 1.4 million in 2021, according to survey data from the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea). The number already represents 31% of people allocated in the Transport sector in the country.
In São Paulo, the growth motivated the discussion about the regulation of application companies that operate in the private transport of paid individual passengers. Set up in early 2021, the Parliamentary Apps Inquiry Commission (CPI dos Apps) investigated for almost two years about the services performed by app and delivery platforms in the city of São Paulo. Teixeira claims that the public app is an initiative that seeks to correct weaknesses pointed out by the CPI.
The final report, presented in December last year, calls for the regulation of passenger transport and delivery services, in addition to better working conditions and the need for legislation with social security. In addition, the document points out the need for an audit, together with the City of São Paulo, of the payment of kilometers traveled by companies in force policy since 2016.
