2,610 taxi drivers receive city-subsidised repainting vouchers

More than 2,600 category A taxi drivers have received painting vouchers in a city-subsidised programme that ended on August 10.

The vouchers enable taxi drivers to either paint or have a peelable paint applied to their vehicles to ensure they are in line with city regulations, which demand that all category A taxis be white.

Drivers can still receive vouchers for dry cleaning the interior of their vehicles until October, says Giorgi Trapaidze, chief executive officer of Alma - the company that won the tender to provide painting and cleaning services via the vouchers.

Tbilisi City Hall mandated the issue of licenses to taxi drivers starting August 1, 2018.

Licenses are divided into A and B categories.

Holders of category A licenses have the right to pick up passengers on the street – they must have four doors and a trunk, be left-hand drive vehicles and also must have already passed mandatory technical inspections.

These taxis must also be the colour white; back in April 2019, drivers protested against the new taxi regulations, especially against painting the cars, claiming repainting their vehicles would be expensive and would decrease the overall value of the car.

In response, Tbilisi City Hall agreed to let taxi drivers apply peelable paint on their vehicles, the cost of which would be covered by vouchers.  

Category B licenses permit drivers to use applications such as Bolt to find passengers. They are exempt from the demand that taxis in the city be white.

Over 30,000 drivers have received taxi licenses since the start of the programme.