The Independent Taxi Federation of the Balearic Islands (FITIB), in which the FITIE of Ibiza is integrated, prepares allegations against the draft decree published Thursday by the Balearic Government which regulates, among other things, the determination, updating and conditions of application of the rates of the sector. At least, from the grouping they have advanced that they will make two requests to the draft presented by the autonomic Executive, which transits a period of ten days of public information and the phase of allegations.
This has been confirmed by Gabriel Moragues, president of the FITIB, to La Voz de Ibiza. According to the leader, there are at least two issues that defy logic and threaten the sector. The first of them has to do with the fact that the decree does not include in the rate the routes that cab drivers must make to go in search of users who request the service through the phone or a mobile application. Distances that, when it comes to joint provision areas may involve traveling between municipalities, “can go from 4 to 5 kilometers, or up to 10 kilometers at some points, especially in Mallorca.” “There is a casuistry not covered. When a cab provides a service in another municipality it must travel long distances. And for a car to move 4 or 5 kilometers and not charge anything, it makes no sense,” Moragues complained. Point 6 of Article 8 of the decree Conditions for the application of tariffs gives for starting the service that is “previously contracted by radio-taxi, telephone or any telematic means (…) at the place of departure of the vehicle”, the next paragraph clarifies that the taximeter will only start once the user has boarded or, if delayed, five minutes after the agreed time. “Imagine that someone from Inca calls a cab and the trip is to be made by someone who is in Marratxí. It goes at least 10 kilometers without charging. And then maybe the user asks him to take him to the train station, 700 meters away from the pick-up point”, has exemplified Moragues. Therefore, he points out that “we must seek a balance to see how this can be fixed”.
Delays
Point 6 indicates a distinction, in the case of trips requested by telephone or mobile applications, between the start of the service and the moment when the taximeter begins to operate. While the service is considered to be provided from the moment the vehicle departs to pick up the user, the taximeter starts to count only at the moment the trip begins. But it includes an exception: “When the user is delayed from the agreed start time of the service, the taximeter will start to operate from the moment when five minuteshave elapsed from the agreed time“. For Moragues, to contemplate this delay in the decree “has neither feet nor heads”, and is the other point that the FITIB plans to appeal.
Single rate
One of the points of the draft decree is that it incorporates, for the first time, the possibility for the island councils to establish a single rate, to which the municipalities could adhere. Thus, if the decree is approved, a reference rate will be established on each island that can be determined by the island councils in the case of Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, while in Mallorca it is a competence of the Government, or at the municipal level, since the municipalities may adhere to the rate of another municipality.
