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A comment on Uber services suspended in Barcelona. Parent comment

Re:Uber services suspended in Barcelona by chosenbreed37 on Friday February 01, 2019 @05:14AM (#19053002)
> - The price of a taxi license is quite expensive (150,000+€ in Madrid), however a VTC license (private transport license) is way cheaper.

Am I reading this right? 150,000 euros for the privilege of driving a taxi?

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Re:Uber services suspended in Barcelona by RandomNewGuy on Friday February 01, 2019 @05:22AM (#19053049)
Yes and no.

AFAIK, licences are limited and no way near that price. When a taxi driver retires, he "resells" the license to another colleague for a huge amount (150k+). The buyer buys it knowing he'll be able to resell the license when he retires too, and so on.

This practice has been going on for years, so now taxi drivers are afraid of losing the status quo because they've paid an overpriced license.

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Re:Uber services suspended in Barcelona by m0skit0 on Friday February 01, 2019 @05:55AM (#19053182)
Yes. Government does not issue more taxi licenses, so the only way to get one is to buy it from someone else. The price is set by the market. A taxi driver can easily make 2,500€/month in Madrid, especially if he/she hires another driver/s to drive the taxi when the main driver is resting.
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