"With the rise in fuel prices and the prices that do not follow, you have to know how to count quickly to choose the right races", explains this 56-year-old taxi from Sao Paulo, the largest metropolis in Latin America, who works for transport applications for three years.

He preferred not to reveal his last name.

In total, there are some 150,000 drivers like him in this megalopolis of 12 million inhabitants.

Tired of too low margins when they work for giants like Uber or 99, some of them have come together to launch their own alternative platform, "Me Busca" (Come and get me).

According to them, this is the first initiative of this type in Latin America.

"We want to offer drivers what they are deprived of by big companies: better pay, better working conditions and safety," Eduardo Lima, president of Ammasp, an association for the defense of transport professionals, told AFP. sector at the origin of the new application project.

Even before its official launch in Sao Paulo, scheduled for March, "Me Busca" already has several thousand member drivers and could expand to other regions of the country.

Inflation

In Brazil, fuel prices have increased by 49% in 2021, which considerably increases the expenses of drivers, who are also affected by the increase in vehicle maintenance costs (+11%).

Raniel de Queiroz, 42, is an employee of a technology company.

But from 6 p.m., after work, he gets behind the wheel of his car for eight hours to make ends meet.

"My salary has not kept up with inflation, and driving is the best way to compensate" the drop in purchasing power, explains to AFP this father who sleeps little.

Travelers get into a car requested via an app at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 10, 2022 NELSON ALMEIDA AFP

Faced with rising fuel prices, he had to install a natural gas cylinder in his car, which is much cheaper than gasoline, to increase his margin.

Even though prices for large apps have increased by 60.5% in 2021 in Sao Paulo, Valmir is still struggling to make ends meet.

"I work more than before, 12 to 13 hours a day, to earn as much as before," laments this driver who earns between 250 and 300 gross reais per day (42 to 51 euros).

arm wrestling

The apps "offer low pay, taking advantage of unemployment in Brazil," said Marlon Luz, a Sao Paulo city councilor who defends drivers.

Brazil has more than 12 million unemployed.

The unemployment rate, which reached 14.9% in the third quarter of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, is currently at 11.6%, but with more precarious jobs and lower wages.

Transport platforms "take 14% to 40%" of the price paid by users, according to Eduardo Lima.

"Me Busca", on the other hand, undertakes "to maintain a fixed percentage, which will allow drivers to earn on average around 2,000 reais (around 340 euros) additional per month", he assures.

Travelers wait for the car requested via an app at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 10, 2022 NELSON ALMEIDA AFP

Uber, which arrived in Brazil in 2014 and has around 1 million drivers and deliverers, has charged a variable percentage on each trip since 2018. Previously, it was fixed at 25%.

The driver "will always earn most of the fare paid by the user," Uber told AFP.

The American company explains that the increase in demand has caused a "temporary imbalance in the market", which it is trying to resolve with a dynamic price system to avoid too frequent cancellations of races.

Platform 99, a Brazilian company financed by Chinese investors, says it has increased remuneration "between 10 to 25%" in 2021, not to mention an increase in the race of 8% per kilometer from this year in Sao Paulo.

But the drivers did not take off.

"I hope the new application will work well. If so, the big companies will regret not having listened to us", concludes Raniel de Queiroz.

© 2022 AFP