Founded in 1872, in 1953 it became a mixed economy public company under the controlling interest of the City Hall of Porto Alegre, which held 99.9% of the shares.

[2] Carris is the oldest public transportation company in the country in activity, and was created with the authorization of Emperor Dom Pedro II, through a decree published on June 19, 1872.

The vehicles operated a selective service that served the region of the Bela Vista neighborhood and were also equipped with a waitress, coffee and newspaper on board.

It was the first company in Porto Alegre to use vehicles that facilitated access to disabled people, initially with hydraulic elevators.

[9] Carris' biggest acquisitions occurred in 1987, when more than 50 new monoblock vehicles with Marcopolo and Thamco bodies arrived, equipped with Mercedes-Benz mechanics.

[10] The company launched an invitation to tender for the renewal of the fleet in March,[11] followed by a decree signed in May by Marchezan Junior to increase the useful life of the buses from twelve to fourteen years.

[18] In June 2018, the city government hired a consulting firm to analyze Carris and the mayor again argued that privatization was one of the options for the company.

A strike was organized by employees in protest, a petition circulated, and 16 entities and unions came together in a Broad Front in Defense of Carris and Quality Transportation.

However, it was a common opinion that public transportation was in great difficulty, with an old fleet, a sharp reduction in the number of users, and expensive fares.

The City Hall insisted on privatization as the only possible solution, and guaranteed that the population would continue to be served without any loss, but the Broad Front offered several management alternatives to reverse the crisis and keep the company public.

Some problems stem in part from broader contexts, such as the pandemic and the global economic crisis, but mismanagement has also been pointed out.

[2] According to André Augustin, from the Observatório das Metrópoles,[23]Unfortunately, in the last few years, the successive neoliberal administrations at Porto Alegre's City Hall have promoted its destruction.

It was also Carris that saved the bus system during the pandemic, when private companies broke contracts and started abandoning the most loss-making lines.

[23] The losses arose after Fortunati handed over the management of Carris to the PMDB, the party of his vice-president, Sebastião Melo.

Among other scandals, more than one and a half million reais were embezzled by the company's financial coordinator, who then made several donations to his party's campaigns, including Melo's own.

When he became mayor, Sebastião Melo used the damage started during his term as vice-mayor to argue that Carris could no longer be public.

Just as happened a century ago, transportation and sanitation must serve not to meet the needs of the population, but to guarantee the profits of the providers of these services and also help the valuation of urban land.