Uber Portugal's general manager today gave a positive assessment of the TVDE platform's 10 years of activity in the country, but acknowledged the discontent of some drivers who have demonstrated for better working conditions. Francisco Vilaça was speaking to journalists during the presentation of Uber's 10 years in Portugal, a ceremony at which it was revealed that the platform, the first to operate in the country, has made 200 million trips in 195 Portuguese cities, made by 12 million passengers of 150 nationalities. "Looking at Uber Portugal's 10 years, we see that official data from the National Institute of Statistics show that the occasional travel sector in passenger vehicles has grown significantly. It was a growth in revenue, in tax collection, in the number of companies, in net employment created," he explained. According to Uber's head of mobility, since 2014 "the sector has grown", also thanks to Uber's contribution "to making these mobility solutions available to users who needed them, who were looking for them and who thereby created an entire sector to provide the service". According to Francisco Vilaça, the entry of the company and TVDE (Individual Passenger Transport in Unmarked Vehicle) in Portugal "tripled the turnover of occasional passenger transport in light vehicles, an increase of 480 million euros". In addition, and still according to the manager, during this decade of operation Uber has created "13 thousand net jobs, currently 28 thousand". As a curiosity, Francisco Vilaça announced that "the platform's most active user has already made more than nine thousand trips" and the "longest trip was between Lisbon and the south of France". Asked about the recent strikes by TVDE drivers for better working conditions, and on the eve of another protest, Francisco Vilaça reiterated that the company "respects the right to demonstrate", adding that it has heard "all the requests and all the needs that stakeholders in the industry have". "It is important to emphasize that we always work to address and respond to these needs. The need for increased income that comes, not only from the right fare, because we are talking about an industry in which we have found demand - which is the great service that the platform provides - and the generation of demand for mobility needs and the service provided," he said. The manager also stressed that "it is through the guarantee that there are trips priced correctly for demand to exist, so that the supply [of services] can then be provided". "It is always in this balance that we can increase the numbers, we work to improve fares, [but] increasing fares does not necessarily mean increasing income and that is the work that must be done," he said. The manager recalled that the company has received "all the participants in the industry" in order to talk "about all the topics put on the table and the plans announced". To celebrate a decade, the platform announced the launch of a new travel option, UberX Share, which allows users to save up to 30% on costs if they share the trip with other users who choose the same option. Francisco Vilaça gave the example of a trip by someone travelling from Campo Grande to Cais do Sodré, who could pick up a user in Saldanha and another in Almirante Reis, until reaching their destination, and thereby have a cheaper trip and make a more sustainable choice, with the trip time not exceeding eight minutes of the total planned. For the driver, and according to the manager, this option is "equivalent to making a longer UberX trip", but could increase the "target audience for their transport services by pairing trips and people". Regarding the issue of foreign drivers driving for the platforms, Francisco Vilaça explained that data from the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT) from 2023 reveals that "70% to 80% of drivers were Portuguese-speaking or from Portuguese-speaking countries". The manager stressed that access to the Uber platform "meets extremely demanding document verification requirements, ensuring that those who provide services through the platform are qualified". Among the documents requested is the driving licence, which is verified by the services, in addition to the TVDE licence issued by the IMT and the criminal record, which is verified every three months, he explained. Also Read: Searches on Uber. Fleet partners suspected of 28 million fraud (Portuguese version)