Filenews 9 February 2026 by Vassos Vassiliou
Professional taxi drivers are calling for stricter legislation to tackle piracy, at a time when many of the pirates come from the ranks of professional taxi drivers.
The paradox was brought before the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, where the problems of taxi drivers, who recently went on strike, were examined, while they are preparing other mobilizations.
It is characteristic that out of 137 fines imposed in 2025, 70% come from professional taxi drivers and the remaining 30% from individuals.
It was also found that pirate taxi drivers are probably more than twice as many as licensed taxi drivers. It is worth noting that while there are 1,538 taxi licenses, taxi drivers seem to exceed 5,000.
The number of illegals also seems to be increasing from the fact that (for their own reasons) professional taxi drivers, after their retirement, use their private vehicles to run races. For them, the transition to piracy is relatively easy, in the sense that their decades of activity have helped them gain a significant number of customers, whom they still serve. At the same time, there are also "normal" pirates, locals and foreigners.
According to representatives of organized city taxi drivers, one of the most important problems they face is the operation of websites through which, mainly tourists, book taxis at the expense of professionals.
On behalf of the Licensing Authority, Ms. Americanou stated that a bill is being promoted according to which when a platform advertises a private vehicle to provide taxi services, it will face consequences.
These include a fine and when this is not paid, his professional license and registration certificate will not be renewed or even his vehicle will be confiscated.
Regarding the treatment of piracy, he argued that the existing legislation worked to a satisfactory degree, although he acknowledged that gaps were found. One of them concerns platforms, which have private vehicles to provide taxi services.
The president of the Committee called on Ms. Americanou to submit the bill as soon as possible, so that she would get the answer that it would be submitted very soon.
However, the president of the Pancyprian Federation of Urban Taxis, Mr. Constantinos Constantinou, stated that when he appeared at trial, as a witness, for a piracy case, he was told that he could not testify, something that only the customer could do. As the president of the taxi drivers characteristically said, the customer, who happened to be a tourist, may have been in Russia or anywhere else at the time of the trial.
