Cab driver lobby group blasts Bolt’s ‘retaliatory’ price hike

Malta’s cab driver lobby LPOA (Light Passenger Operators Association) has described the digital platform app Bolt’s sudden increase in cab prices as “retaliation against government for seeking to regulate an abused market.”

LPOA president Aron Gatt welcomed the radical decision by government to plug the supply of foreign non-EU labour by stopping new work permits for prospective cab drivers.

Bolt, Malta’s largest ride-hailing platform, had denied claims of price retaliation after government’s decision, insisting the price hikes were a result of driver shortage.

In an opinion appearing in MaltaToday, Gatt welcomed the decision to regulate a sector he said had been “built on modern-day exploitation, characterised by artificially low prices and abusive business practices.”

Gatt, who has been a cab driver for nearly a decade, noted that the industry had been marked by a shift from self-employed operators earning a decent income, to a market dominated by large fleets exploiting foreign workers.

This is how the prices of cab fares could have stayed low, he said.