Uber celebrates 8 years of activity in Portugal and has shared a report entitled “Uber and TVDE in Portugal: Technology at the service of the community” on the positive economic and social impact of the TVDE sector in Portugal.

According to the company, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) until January 2022 demonstrate the positive impact that the flexible TVDE model had in Portugal, with all the activity of occasional passenger transport in light vehicles (which includes taxi service and TVDE) growing significantly, generating more jobs, more companies, more turnover and more tax revenue.

Between 2013, the year before the launch of Uber's operation in Portugal, and 2019, the number of companies in the sector grew by 71%. Employment in the sector grew by 51% and more than 7,000 net jobs were created. Turnover increased by 84% compared to the period before Uber entered Portugal. From 2013 to 2019, the sector's total tax revenue increased by 43%. Even in 2020, a year in which all activities related to mobility were strongly affected by the restrictions resulting from the pandemic, INE data indicate that the number of companies in the sector still grew by 7.1% and the number of jobs grew by 2, 8%.

Economic growth and flexibility

According to the report, the balance achieved in Portugal from 2018 onwards with the TVDE legal regime has allowed the activity to provide a flexible and adjusted response to the multiple needs of drivers, users, and communities across the country. This balance has led to the registration, to date, of more than 39,000 drivers in the TVDE activity, exercising it through more than 9,500 companies licensed as TVDE operators.

The document also reveals that the flexibility of work opportunities is adjusted to the preferences and individual needs of drivers active on the Uber platform in Portugal, with 68% of them indicating that the possibility to choose where and when they work, as well as the applications they best respond to their needs, as being what they value most in TVDE.

According to Uber, 45% of active drivers in the Lisbon and Porto Metropolitan Areas, and in the Faro, Coimbra and Braga districts, have travelled in more than one district or metropolitan area.

This flexibility is especially important in dealing with seasonal fluctuations in tourism. In 2019 alone, Portugal received Uber users from 81 countries. To meet this tourist demand, in the summer of 2019, 72% of drivers from the Lisbon and Porto Metropolitan Areas and from the Coimbra and Braga districts who temporarily moved to other regions during the high tourist season did so by moving to the Algarve, in response to increased demand.