Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta today defended delivery service apps such as Rappi, Glovo and Pedidos Ya, saying they were "legally constituted, pay their taxes and are used by many people" in the capital.
He added that the companies "create a lot of work" and "generate new jobs."
The comments came in response to a controversial City court ruling on Friday that said City police officers would supervise home delivery services from mobile applications to ensure they comply with the law. Failure to comply with local legislation would lead to shipments being confiscated, the ruling said, until the firms indicated its staff were complying with the Transit and Transportation Code.
The court based its decision on a recent report from City police, which concluded that 77 percent of mobile application delivery service workers – who normally make deliveries using a bicycle or motorbike – did not use the correct backpack to deliver items, that 67 percent do not wear a helmet, and that 70 percent do not have the correct insurance.
Judge Roberto Gallardo indicated in his ruling that the Trade Union Association of Motorcyclists Messengers and Services (ASIMM) "receives an average of five complaints for weekly accidents, of different severity, that distributors suffer."
The ruling requested credit card companies suspend and block payments from being made, though deliveries carried on over the weekend.
The delivery apps affected by the ruling – Rappi, Glovo and Pedidos Ya – have soared in popularity in the capital over the past year.
Rodríguez Larreta said today the ruling was "one of many" that the judge "is accustomed" to, describing his motives as "political."
"The thing about Gallardo is he goes for anything. His rulings are more political," said the mayor, who suggested the ruling would be appealed.
Rodríguez Larreta said it was one thing to see how new businesses arrive onto the scene and to regulate them, but that it was another "to ban it and leave a line of people on the street, just with the need for work
that there [currently] is."
- TIMES/NA/AFP
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