Hundreds of taxi drivers disrupted traffic around Lyon on Monday before converging on a city square, where some could spend the night, to protest against an agreement currently being negotiated with the health insurance system including lower prices for patient transport.
Disruptions also occurred around Toulon, and several hundred taxis were still blocking a toll booth on the A7 northwest of Marseille.
Fog horns, firecrackers and horns: in Lyon, dozens of drivers converged at the wheel around 5:00 p.m. on Place Bellecour, in persistent rain, noted an AFP journalist.
"The day went well, no altercations. We raised awareness among as many people as possible," says Abdel Green, president of the Federation of Independent Taxis of the Rhone (FTI69), under an umbrella.
"This evening, as planned, we are making a bivouac on Place Bellecour, and we will see (...) if we sleep there, or if we put an end to the movement. It will depend on the vote of the demonstrators," once all the taxis are on the square, he adds.
– More than 1,500 taxis –
According to him, more than 1,500 taxis took part throughout the day in blockades or slowdowns at several access points in the Lyon metropolitan area.
Before dawn, with their hazard lights on, some 150 vehicles had parked on an interchange west of Lyon, without completely blocking traffic, an AFP journalist noted. "Taxis on strike", "medical taxi in danger", could be read on some.
Among them, Nicolas Galliot, 43, from Clermont-Ferrand. At the head of a taxi company, medical transport represents 60 to 70% of his turnover. "But for rural taxis, it can go up to 100%," he specifies.
In 2023, more than 40,000 taxis were approved to transport sick people suffering from pathologies ranging from cancer to psychiatric illnesses, according to Health Insurance, or almost three quarters of taxis in France.
In order to make savings of 300 million euros on these medical transports, the Barnier government, threatened with censorship, wants to force taxis and medical transporters to negotiate measures with the Health Insurance, under penalty of imposed price reductions.
In addition, a decree implementing the 2024 Social Security budget provides that a patient can no longer refuse, except in exceptional circumstances, shared medical transport, under penalty of having to advance the costs and only being reimbursed on the basis of shared transport. Patients must also be taken care of in less than 45 minutes, and by geographic sector with a kilometer limit for detour per patient.
"Not only will we wait a very long time to fill the car, we will make endless rounds, but we will also deteriorate the service that we have been providing for years with patients," according to Abdel Green.
Coming from Puy-de-Dome, Isère, Drome, Loire and Haute-Loire, taxi drivers blocked lanes of the A7, A43 and A46 motorways for several hours, causing several dozen kilometres of traffic jams or slowdowns at the entrance to the Lyon metropolitan area.
– “Caught by the throat” –
Sabrina Pena, 51, a taxi driver for 27 years in Lyon, does 10% of her work with patients. She regrets the drop in fares because "in recent years everything has increased, the price of fuel, vehicles, tolls, the price of bottles of water for customers". "They know that we are in a pinch because we are all in debt", she says in front of the Edouard Herriot hospital.
Disruptions in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur were also noted, particularly in the morning at the entrances to Toulon and which ended at the start of the afternoon.
On the other hand, 800 taxis were still mobilized to block the Lancon-de-Provence toll, one of the most important on the A7, around forty km northwest of Marseille, with 6 km of traffic jams towards Lyon and 5 km towards Marseille, according to the Bouches-du-Rhone prefecture and Vinci.
Taxis from Marseille and the surrounding area blocked the payment lanes with their cars or tires.
For Karine Lahouel, a taxi driver in Carpentras (Vaucluse) for eleven years, "we are trying to save our skin, very clearly, because this is the end, this is the last chance for this profession to continue to exist," says this 52-year-old woman.
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