This summer, many residents of Rabat are forced to queue for long periods at certain shared taxi stations to travel around the administrative capital of the Kingdom, particularly during weekends, as noted by Hespress.
This situation was considered by union actors as an opportunity to draw attention to the need for reform of the transport legislative framework in order to follow the country’s directions, particularly in anticipation of the organization of global events such as the 2030 World Cup.
The actors, who spoke to Hespress, affirmed that the problem does not lie in a lack of supply but in “management problems”, proposing to distribute additional transport licenses to professional drivers. Consumer advocates have indicated that there are other means of transportation that should be made available to citizens, emphasizing the need to regulate the taxi sector.
Mustapha Chaoune, Secretary General of the Democratic Organization of Transport and Multimodal Logistics, commented that “taxis are a type of sustainable transportation that the government should seriously consider providing in all large and small Moroccan cities.”
“In principle, we should not wait to organize global events, such as the 2030 World Cup, to improve the transport system in order to compete with regional experiences, especially those that we consider benchmarks in comparative marketing like the countries of Southern Europe,” he said, emphasizing that “the material, logistical and human resources are available to achieve this objective.”
According to the same trade unionist, what is missing is « the political will, all the laws governing transport are obsolete and some date from 1963 », adding that « the availability of this will for reform is what will advance transport in the country and will make this sector consistent with the different directions taken by Morocco in terms of organizing local, continental and global events, in addition to its bet on attracting millions of tourists”.
For his part, Bouazza Kherrati, president of the Moroccan Federation of Consumer Rights (FMDC), estimated that the situation of public transport supply requires “the creation of metros in all major cities of the Kingdom, such as Casablanca, Tangier , Rabat, Fez and Marrakech”, calling at the same time to “open the market to transport cars via intelligent applications”.
Kherrati told Hespress that before that, “and outside the context of the global events that Morocco will host, the sector must be organized and the problems that characterize it must be resolved, such as the existence of license owners and tenants and drivers”, calling in this context for the formation of companies bringing together license owners who would compete with respect for the consumer; which would put an end to certain common practices that mark the sector with “chaos”.
