On 11 August 2009, public transport drivers held a march from Kutaisi to Tbilisi and organized a protest on Rike. Their protest was caused by the decision of the Kutaisi City Hall to introduce a new passenger-transport scheme. Under the new scheme, the number of minibuses in the city would be reduced from 180 to 130, while the number of buses would increase from 67 to 128. The City Hall planned to implement the new scheme starting in September; it had also announced a tender for intra-city routes, which was to be held on 3 August. The plan of the local self-government was temporarily disrupted. The drivers feared they would be left unemployed, therefore they demanded a two-year postponement of the tender.

The drivers state that, at the request of the local authorities, they had purchased new minibuses, for which they took out loans, and they still had unpaid debts to the banks.

A protest was also held in Kutaisi on 19 August. Representatives of a special commission arrived in Kutaisi from Tbilisi. The trade union became involved in regulating the disputed issue, and a temporary commission was created to study passenger flow and road traffic. The commission reached a certain agreement with the City Hall, although the drivers said that the agreement was not being fulfilled. The mayor of Kutaisi, Nugzar Shamugia, stated that transport movement would be improved in such a way that the rights of the drivers would not be violated.

Radio Liberty writes on 7 October that the Kutaisi self-government and the route minibus drivers still could not agree regarding the city’s transport scheme. On this day, about 300 drivers protested the tender conditions and held a one-day strike.