TVDE Drivers and Operators March on Lisbon Wednesday — A Thousand-Strong Convoy from Campo Pequeno to Uber and Bolt Headquarters as Sector Demands Tariff Hike, Fuel Support and Rejection of Taxis Inside the Régime
TVDE drivers and operators converged on Lisbon Wednesday for a thousand-strong protest, demanding higher platform tariffs, opposing taxis entering the TVDE regime, and pressing for a fuel-support mechanism as Lei n.º 45/2018 goes through its first revision.
The Portuguese ride-hail sector poured into Lisbon on Wednesday morning for its largest set-piece in two years — a co-ordinated protest by motoristas and operators against what they describe as a triple squeeze: platform pricing that has been falling in real terms, a government revision of the TVDE law that they say tightens the wrong screws, and a fuel bill that the sector is no longer able to absorb. The action started at 10am with two parallel concentrations, one at Campo Pequeno and a second on Avenida da Liberdade, before converging into a horn-honking convoy that ran out to Uber's headquarters near Gare do Oriente and then doubled back to Bolt at Amoreiras.
Organisers — the Associação Portuguesa dos Operadores de Transporte em Automóveis Descaracterizados (APTAD) and the Associação Movimento Nacional do TVDE (ANM-TVDE) — put expected turnout above a thousand drivers. Their three headline demands are an across-the-board increase in the minimum tariffs the platforms pay per kilometre and per minute, formal opposition to allowing taxis to operate under the TVDE regime alongside their licensed activity, and the creation of a fuel-price support mechanism modelled on the AUTOvoucher subsidies extended to several sectors during the 2022-23 inflation peak.
Why the timing matters
Lei n.º 45/2018, the law that created the TVDE category in 2018, is going through a Parliamentary revision in 2026 — the first material reopening of the framework since it took effect. The drivers' associations argue that the draft now circulating in the Comissão de Economia adds compliance burdens (insurance thresholds, inspection cycles, identity-card readers in the vehicle) without addressing the upstream economics. Their position is straightforward: if the legislator wants higher service standards, the platforms have to pay more per ride, and the tax-and-fuel framework has to give the operators room to invest.
The platform pricing complaint is a long-standing one across Iberia. Spain's CCOO documented in early 2026 that the typical Bolt fare in Madrid had fallen 14% in nominal euros since 2022 even as fuel ran 11% higher. The Portuguese figures presented Wednesday by APTAD show a parallel picture in Lisbon and Porto, where the tariff per kilometre on Uber and Bolt has hovered around the same nominal mark for three years while electric and hybrid vehicle leases — the type the platforms now favour for new sign-ups — have run faster than CPI.
The taxi-into-TVDE flashpoint
The third demand is the most politically charged. Under a proposed amendment, holders of taxi licences would be allowed to take rides through the TVDE apps without surrendering the taxi alvará — running both books in parallel. The TVDE associations describe this as a backdoor expansion of supply that would compress margins further; the taxi federations argue it would let licensed operators recover ground lost to the platforms since 2018. The ministry has not yet taken a public position.
Wednesday's action also overlaps with a separate 24-hour walkout called by gig couriers — Glovo, Uber Eats and TVDE platform workers across the country — under a self-organised banner. The two movements are not formally co-ordinated but converge on the same target: the platform-economy regulation that the XXV Constitutional Government has flagged as an upcoming legislative priority. Whether the protest translates into the specific tariff floor and fuel-support package the sector wants will be tested in the next Comissão de Economia hearing on the bill.
