President-Elect Arias Promises More Taxi Plates, Appeasing the "Fuerza Roja"
With less than a month before president-elect, Oscar Arias Sanchez, takes office, he is making commitments to perhaps the strongest and most militant group, the "fuerza roja" - the red force - or taxis as they are sometimes as referred to.

During the past several months, taxi unions have been calling on their membership to force the current government to end, once and for all, the informal taxi service known as "porteadores" and illegal taxi operators or "piratas".

Porteadores are those taxi operators who, under contract, provide taxi service to their clients "door-to-door", while piratas pick up fares on the street like the legal or red taxis. Taxi operators say that there is really no distinction between porteadores and piratas, both provide the same service as the licensed taxis, sometimes at lower cost and do not need to comply with regulations and costs that licensed taxis.

The argument against the porteadores and piratas is also one of safety and security to the consumer, who, in the case of an accident is not covered as most of the illegal operators do not count with the required insurance coverage. The other argument is that consumers have no recourse against the illegal taxis and are taking a great risk every time.

Porteadores and piratas on the other hand defend their right to exist. Porteadores say that they are not taking away business from the formal taxis and are providing an exclusive service, under contract, to their customers. Piratas argue that they provide a service to many communities where regular taxis will not, especially in conflictive areas like Pavas and La Carpio, where some formal taxis will not pick up or drop off a fare.

President-elect Arias told the "fuerza roja" yesterday that his new government will open up the licensing process to more taxi plates, allowing those informal services to obtain a taxi license.

Taxi operators have been pressuring the current government as well as Arias to make changes to the Código de Comercio that would completely eliminate the "porteo", which allows the informal taxi services to operate.

"On the subject of porteo, piratas and the current legislation which is before Congress aiming to clarify the transport situation, which the taxi operators support, we hope all to come to an agreement. There is no commitment other than to stay on the side of the quality of service and the legality. Precisely to that we hope to open more taxi licenses", said Karla González, the new Ministra de Obras Públicas y Transportes, appointed by Arias to form part of his new government on May 8.

Arias added that he is conscious that there are many areas that need additional taxi service.