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On Monday, May 8th, Caretaker Minister of Interior, Bassam Mawlawi, issued a memorandum to the Ministry of Telecommunications in which he requested the suspension of activities relating to the ride-hailing application Bolt, in order to ensure that “no violation of the Traffic Law and other prevailing laws” will occur.
Although a week has passed since the memorandum was issued, nothing seems to have changed and people still continue to use Bolt. The application remains perfectly accessible and has not made any changes to its business practices.
In recent months, Bolt has provoked the ire of taxi drivers, who accuse it of being unfair competition, as Bolt has made its private cars and motorcycle services available to the public at a lower price than the fare set for public transportation and taxi services.
Several complaints have been filed against the application by the General Syndicate of the Lebanese Taxi Drivers, and protests, such as sit-ins and road blockages, have been organized to pressure the authorities into suspending Bolt’s activities.
According to the Ministry of Telecommunications, a court order is required to ban the application in Lebanon. The case was therefore handed over last Friday to the General Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Cassation to act accordingly.
However, implementing the operation could be complicated and may even exceed the capabilities of the Ministry of Telecommunications and mobile operators Alfa and Touch. As a result, the Ministry of Interior is reported to have reached out to Google, aiming to block the application through their platform once the court decision is made.
The representative of the protest movement, Hussein Haidar, has expressed optimism regarding the progress of this case, stating that “the court decision to suspend Bolt’s activities will be issued by Monday. Therefore, we have given a one-week deadline to the relevant institutions to fulfill their promises,” he informed This is Beirut.
In addition to his instructions to suspend Bolt, the Minister of Interior has asked the Internal Security Forces to tackle violations within the transportation sector, particularly concerning motorcycle taxis. Several offenders have already been arrested. However, it appears that the issue is far from being resolved, given how deeply the transportation sector has been disrupted by the emergence of motorcycle taxis and ‘Tuk-Tuks’, especially since the onset of the Lebanese crisis.
“The problem will not be solved promptly, as the motorcycle taxi drivers have become self-organized by creating WhatsApp groups and giving their phone numbers to their passengers,” sighs Hussein Haidar. “Banning Bolt is what matters the most for now,” he adds.
For many Lebanese, motorcycle taxis are a cheap and practical means of transportation in the absence of an organized public transportation system. Nonetheless, the issue of urban transportation, which is impacted by the economic crisis and inflation, requires more than a mere ministerial decision.
