POP TVDE reaches 2,000 passengers and 500 drivers in 10 days

As announced today in a statement, it accounts for more than 2,000 passengers and about 500 drivers, numbers that “correspond to registrations on the platform, not the number of active users or journeys made.”.

“ At this stage, the company’s priority is to transform the interest in application into a regular use, reinforcing the availability of drivers to respond to passenger requests,” explains POP.

The platform aims, “within days”, to start the operation in the Metropolitan Area of Porto and Braga and Guimarães.

“ The expansion to other regions will be gradual, following the platform's response capacity ", says the company.

The POP, which is operated by POPAPP Technology and Mobility, says it is a “Portuguese alternative in the TVDE market”, with a commission of 15% (calculated on the value of the trip without VAT), service in Portuguese and “services for different passenger needs”.

“ During this initial phase, the company is still bearing, through its own commission, the costs of processing payments and self-inflicting, without passing them on to partner operators”, the platform states, which is a “temporary support to accompany the first months of activity”.

In this application, the driver can consult the amount to be received per minute and mile and the route data before accepting a trip, allowing him to evaluate the service with prior information.

In terms of services, the company provides Lady POP, which allows passengers to choose from a driver, Senior POP, who “is thought for those who value greater monitoring”, and PET POP, which allows them to travel with pets.

On September 1, this year, the new law on the TVDE regime came into force, which refers to paid passenger transport in electronic vehicles and, among the main changes, becomes part of the taxi sector.

Eight years after the start of the regulation of this type of transport, Law No 59/2026 – which amends the previous Law No 45/2018, dropping the previous formulation of uncharacterized vehicles and turning the TVDE regime into paid passenger transport in electronic vehicles – entered into force in the middle of some dispute.

Among the major changes in the law that entered into force, the most contested one was the integration of taxis, which can now be “registered for the TVDE activity, provided they meet the requirements applicable to vehicles affected by this activity and are registered with the licensed electronic platform manager”.

Another of the novelties, which also generated divergences, is the seal, passing the vehicles affected to the activity to circulate “with an unmovable identifier, endowed with anti-fraud security elements, namely holographic or technologically equivalent, issued by the IMT, visible from the outside and associated with the vehicle registration”.

In addition, drivers will have to attend a “minimum initial training of 50 hours”, with theoretical and practical component, followed by a final examination consisting of 30 questions, and it is necessary to correct at least 27.

The training course includes the verification of the functional domain of the Portuguese language appropriate for the exercise of the activity of driver.