Bus companies and apps battle in Congress

Amid the frustration of expectations with the opening of the public transport market during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, apps and even regular interstate bus companies arm themselves in Congress to try to change the rules of the sector.

Representatives of new operators in Brazil, such as FlixBus and Buser (known as the Uber of buses), are creating their own bench to face traditional entrepreneurs, such as Jacob Barata (owner of the Guanabara group) and Nenê Constantino (controller of Itamaraty, Breda and others).

This group has the support of different parliamentarians — some belonging to families that own bus companies, as is the case of Acir Gurgacz (PDT-RO) and the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG). Representatives of the companies also have deputies such as Carlos Chiodini (MDB-SC), Hugo Mota (Republicans-PB), Alê Silva (Republicans-RJ) and Felipe Rigoni (UB-ES).

The dispute between political forces has already overthrown practically the entire board of ANTT (Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres) which, in 2019, began releasing more than 2,000 shelved orders from companies interested in exploring new lines.

For this, at the time, the agency’s board, then led by Davi Barreto, regulated a decree by Bolsonaro that, in practice, allowed ANTT to release pending authorization requests since 2016. That year, former president Dilma Rousseff (PT ) also tried to open the market, but was unsuccessful.

Barreto, a graduate of the TCU (Union Court of Auditors), was one of the trusted names of the then Minister of Infrastructure Tarcísio de Freitas and had the mission of leading this process. Tarcísio is currently running for the government of São Paulo.

With the authorizations granted, the new companies generated discomfort in a market that, due to the high concentration of routes, imposes high prices and obtains profit margins above 50%.

Entrants came to dominate 15% of interstate and intercity trips, according to estimates by the Ministry of Economy.

With a system similar to that of the airlines, they started to optimize the sale of seats that, before, were sold for a long-distance trip and arrived at the destination empty because the traveler got off in a city in the middle of the way.

Due to this efficiency, the prices of the tickets offered are, on average, 30% cheaper than those charged by traditional companies, forcing them to reduce values ​​and profit margins.

Appeal to TCU

Faced with this growth, considered unbridled by traditional companies, Anatrip (National Association of Passenger Road Transport Companies) made a complaint to the TCU in 2020.

In a precautionary decision, the plenary of the court decided to suspend the authorizations until ANTT proved its ability to inspect the released routes.

TCU ministers claim that, however, the market is open. ANTT can grant a license as long as it guarantees the inspection of the service provided — which does not occur when more than half of the budget is cut for this type of activity.

The merits of the process, however, have not yet been judged and the case is with the TCU minister Antonio Anastasia, a former PSD senator who came to office through a Senate nomination with the support of Pacheco.

Turnaround at ANTT

Barreto, who was leading the process of opening up the market, had his nomination for the presidency of the agency withdrawn by the government. He was one of Tarcísio’s trusted names. Today, he continues as director and his term expires next year.

The command of the organ is in charge of Rafael Rodrigues, linked to Pacheco. According to Planalto advisors, Pacheco indicated the names at ANTT.

At that moment, the government gave up the nominations to try to seal a deal with the Senate, which had been blocking most of the government’s names for regulatory bodies and autarchies.

The new board decided to submit new rules for interstate public transport to public consultation. According to them, the agency must attest to the investment capacity of companies interested in operating in this market in order to guarantee their operational capacity. Some directors think that R$ 200 thousand in revenue is little and prefer R$ 600 thousand, for example.

The new framework, however, will only come into force one year after the approval of the new sectorial regulation – which, for newcomers, already demonstrates political interference in the process.

According to Amobitec (Brazilian Association of Mobility and Technology), which represents leading technology companies in the development of platforms and applications for long-distance passenger transport, there are 48.8 million idle seats in road transport per year, reflecting an opportunity cost of R$ 5.4 billion for the sector.

Mayors want routes

The resistance to the opening of this market made ANTT displease a good part of the mayors who today are looking for at least one bus route that connects their city to others.

For them, the inter-municipal connection —whether by roads or via the internet (with quality infrastructure)—has become a means of obtaining votes.

This divergence between city halls and state benches has been helping the new applications that, in Congress, conquer the adhesions of parliamentarians more connected to these municipalities.

Recently, this bench managed to include in the text of a Provisional Measure an article predicting changes in interest in bus charter, another closed segment within public transport. The text, however, was not voted on.

Other side

When contacted, Pacheco replied that there was no veto or indication on his part in relation to the current directors, “who were chosen by technical criteria of the federal government and discussed by the Senate”. “On the subject itself, I do not interfere in technical issues of regulatory agencies,” he said in a statement.

TCU minister Antonio Anastasia’s adviser said he would not comment because “there is still no decision from the court”. He also informed that there is no forecast for the case to be brought to trial.

Anatrip, on the other hand, defended that the opening of interstate transport cannot be “indiscriminate”. “The board [da ANTT] it was opening markets without observing safety requirements”, said the association’s lawyer, Gabriel Oliveira. ANTT did not have the size of inspection. How do you release and reduce your inspection capacity?”, he asked.

ANTT said, through its advisory, that the interstate passenger road transport market has been operating under an authorization regime since 2014 by virtue of a law. In 2022, the legislation was updated with new guidelines and, in view of this, the agency reported that it is working on updating the regulatory framework.