Yanis Darras with AFP 12:11 p.m., January 29, 2024

Taxis are in turn launching several snail operations this Monday. In Bordeaux, Paris and Marseille, road professionals are demonstrating against the new Social Security finance law, which wants to pool part of the journeys of medical patients. 

While farmers continue certain blockades, particularly around Paris and Lyon, it is the turn of taxis to block certain roads. In Île-de-France, while agricultural unions announced their desire to lay siege to the capital from 2 p.m., a taxi snail operation was launched early Monday on the A13 towards Porte d'Auteuil on the ring road. “The procession progresses at reduced speed and leaves one lane of traffic free,” said Bison Futé. 

A new Cnam convention

In Bordeaux, several hundred taxis blocked the city's ring road, a major axis linking the north of France to Spain. The prefect advised to “favor teleworking and limit travel” on the Bordeaux ring road, an axis used by 85,000 to 140,000 vehicles per day and regularly congested during peak hours. 

At the center of the anger of these road professionals: a new agreement from the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) on the conditions of remuneration for the transport of patients, which taxis consider unfavorable. Through their four national organizations, they call for maintaining the

status quo

. Currently, a taxi driver can rebate 20% of the fare to social security. But with the new agreement which was published in the Official Journal at the beginning of January 2024, professionals do not know what discount could apply, nor what the new prices in force will be. 

“Our movement is renewable”

“The Health Insurance Fund has decided to impose rates on us without negotiation,” Céline Puech, who works as a taxi (medical and classic) in Marseille, told AFP. In Bouches-du-Rhône, taxis carried out two snail operations on Monday morning: a procession towards the prefecture in the center of Marseille and another on the A8 motorway near Aix-en-Provence, complicating traffic. . 

“We want a return to the negotiating table, we cannot accept this pricing. The taxis have a lot of charges, we work endless hours. We are very angry and our movement is renewable,” she declared via telephone from the procession.

Reduce costs and pollution

The first demonstrations took place in mid-December, to protest against the new Social Security finance law, which pools these journeys for medical patients. Medical transport represented reimbursements of nearly 5.5 billion euros in 2022, and 65 million trips were made over the year for taxis and light medical vehicles (VSL) alone, according to the authors of the text of the law.

Nearly 15% of journeys are already shared. The idea is to reduce the cost of travel for Social Security by 100 million euros per year between 2025 and 2027, as well as pollution.