The amendment to the transport law on licenses was intended to increase passenger and road safety. As of June 17, drivers operating for platforms such as Uber, Bolt and FreeNow, were required to have a domestic driver's license and to have resided in the country for at least six months.
The ride-hailing firms employ many non-EU citizens, with drivers coming from a diverse range of countries ranging from Ukraine to as far away as Bangladesh.
Police statistics have revealed, however, that many drivers provide transportation illegally, the newspaper Rzeczpospolita wrote.
Since the new law came into force 10 days ago police have begun carrying out inspections. In Warsaw for example, Poland’s largest cab market, the number of drivers abiding by the law has failed to increase.
Warsaw Police Headquarters (KSP) have released figures saying that more than one in four drivers of the 65 inspections they carried out last week, did not possess a Polish license.
Furthermore, almost one in 10 did not have a license for providing a taxi service. There were two cases where drivers had no permit to drive and three where the vehicle was not declared for cab services. In 20% of cases, the drivers did not have a sign indicating they were a taxi.
Junior Inspector Jacek Sobocinski from KSP's Public Relations Department told Rzeczpospolita that 18 fines were imposed.
Impact on cab market
Warsaw City Hall, has said that the inspections do not apply to the companies for whom the driver cooperates with, i.e. Uber, Bolt and FreeNow, but the drivers themselves.
Inspections were also carried out in other Polish cities. The results, similar to the capital, showed that the illegal cab market is still going strong.
The introduction of the requirement to have a Polish driver's license led Bolt to strike off 26% of its drivers overnight, while FreeNow cut 15%, according figures cited by Rzeczpospolita.
Uber unperturbed
By contrast, Uber has continued to operate as they were before the change, only blocking access to new associates. Existing drivers, who have not complied with the new regulations, continue to provide services, which has, apparently, upset their competitors, the paper added.
Uber has consequently taken a considerable chunk of the market in a single day. Companies that complied with the new laws were unable to respond to demand and compete with Uber’s prices. The U.S. company has argued that they are not breaking the law.
“We believe that our understanding of the regulations fully coincides with the interpretation of the General Inspectorate of Road Transport. Since June 17, we have prevented all new drivers without a Polish driver's license from joining the platform,” Iwona Kruk, a spokeswoman for Uber said.
Existing Uber drivers are expected to continue driving without a Polish document for three more months. According to Kruk, the changes in the law have already caused a wave of departures with nearly two in 10 drivers having already left Uber since the legislation came into effect.
However, Uber’s interpretation is not aligned with the General Inspectorate of Road Transport (GITD).
“As of June 17 of this year, an entrepreneur personally carrying out transportation, drivers employed by him, and persons not employed by the entrepreneur but personally carrying out transportation on his behalf must have the appropriate authorization to drive a vehicle, confirmed by a driving license issued in the country,” the GITD press office told Rzeczpospolita.
