The clock is ticking and February 22 marks a turning point for the transport sector in the Balearic Islands. On that day, if there are no last minute changes, the moratorium that has stopped the moratorium that has slowed down the granting of new cab and VTC licenses, opening the door to a flood of new licenses for cabs and VTCs.opening the door to a flood of applications. The Balearic Government, which has not yet answered if it plans to extend the measure or if it will manage to approve a new regulation in time, keeps the sector in uncertainty.
The Law 1/2024, passed on February 16 last year, amended Law 4/2014, of June 20, on land transport and sustainable mobility of the Balearic Islands. The Govern stated then that it suspended “the granting and processing of procedures pending resolution of ordinary authorizations for leases of vehicles with driver and autotaxi licenses”, until new criteria were established, responding “to the improvement of air quality, transport management, traffic and public space”.
To this end, last August the regional executive launched a comprehensive study comprehensive study to serve as a diagnosis and set the course of the regulation. The methodology of the study, as published by La Voz de Ibiza, has been criticized for its unreliability.
An impossible race against the clock
The suspension of licenses for cabs and VTCs ends on February 22 and at this point it is hard to believe that the necessary regulations for new licenses are ready.
This is deduced, at least, from the answers given by the Govern in the Parliament last February 4. When asked by the socialist deputy Marco Antonio Guerrero y Moreno if they thought they would be on time with the regulation, the Govern limited itself to answer that the period of public exposition had been opened (as reported La Voz de Ibizawill be extended until February 14). The Autonomous Executive has also recalled that before the regulation is ready it needs to go through a period of hearing and public information, then reports must be requested and issued and then prepare the Regulatory Impact Report.
A process that makes it unfeasible to arrive with the times.
Avalanche of applications
“The regulation will not be approved before February 22, so they will have to extend the moratorium. If that doesn’t happen, we will see an avalanche of license applications,” Joan Marí Riera, of the Agrupación de Autotaxis de las Islas Baleares, tells La Voz de Ibiza.
The great beneficiary would be the giant Uber, operating in Ibiza and Mallorca, since the suppliers that provide vehicles and drivers would be able to access new licenses at no cost and thus avoid the speculation that exists in the market.
The cab driver recalls that, when the moratorium was approved, there were some 10,000 applications in process in the Balearics. With the restriction in force, only 16 have been requested, but “because everyone knew they would be rejected”.
Municipal licenses
The second consequence is that the municipalities could continue with the processing of the granting of new fixed cab licenses, which the moratorium paralyzed.
The problem, according to cab drivers, is that the Govern has not acted quickly enough. Marí Riera criticizes that the process of public exposure has not been opened before, when for a year it was known that this moment would come. In fact, he believes that it should have been done before starting the comprehensive study, at the very beginning of the moratorium. Now, with the allegations closing on February 14, there is no margin.
For his part, the president of the Independent Federation of Taxis of the Balearic Islands (FITIE), Toni Roig, assures La Voz de Ibiza that the sector does not know if there is an advanced draft of the new regulation. “We know that work is being done on it, that progress has been made in many parts, but we have no record that there is a closed document.”
Roig warns about the dangers of February 22nd arriving without containment measures: “We have experienced other processes with legal loopholes in which thousands of VTC applications slipped through”. A scenario that, if repeated, could have a direct impact on mobility in Ibiza and other islands of the archipelago.
“We will see what maneuvering capacity there is for new licenses,” Roig adds. But he points out that the margin is not very large: “I want to remember that there is 50% or more of the year in which the Ibiza autotaxi fleet has a percentage of 20 or 30% of vehicles in free lane quadrants, because the demand is not so high”, in relation to the low season.
Silence from the Govern: the key to the extension is still up in the air
So far, the Govern has not responded to La Voz de Ibiza’s queries on whether they will extend the moratorium or if they will be on time with the regulation.
In the above-mentioned session of the Parliament of February 4, the Government has limited itself to answer that the granting of new licenses will be based on the new regulation, without giving further details. And that, in the case of seasonal licenses, they will be in charge of each City Council.
“For people to be calm they should say that it is extended for six months. What they should not do is to have this passivity, that is to say, to do nothing,” complains Marí Riera.
The only certainty is that, should the moratorium be lifted without a firm regulation, a scenario that many in the sector consider uncontrolled would be enabled: an avalanche of requests that could alter the fragile balance between cabs and VTCs in Ibiza and the rest of the Balearic Islands.
