As summer approaches, uncertainty is growing among Ibiza’s cab drivers about the new seasonal license regulation. The City Council has opened the application process for the period 2025-2028 and several drivers have demanded that they be allowed to operate with diesel vehicles, a possibility that the current regulation prevents.
The problem lies in the fact that the bases of the new plan establish that the vehicles must meet the requirements of the Ibiza Taxi Regulation approved in August 2024. One of these requirements refers to the fact that they must be ECO vehicles or vehicles with a Zero label from the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), which practically excludes diesel vehicles.
On the other hand, Article 35 of the Ibiza Taxi Regulations establishes that vehicles cannot exceed eight years of age (five in the case of second-hand vehicles), except for those adapted for people with reduced mobility and those with DGT Zero label, which can reach ten years of age. As Julián Povedano, president of the association El Arca, explains to La Voz de Ibiza, this point discourages even more to apply for seasonal licenses.
“Many (licensees) have had diesel cars for 5 years and were planning to use this older car and put it on a seasonal, but it’s no longer worth it to them,” he complains. And he adds that when both requirements (hybrid cars and the maximum vehicle age cap) are on the table, asking for seasonal licenses can be unprofitable.
“If you’re going to order a seasonal with a hybrid, it should be pre-owned. It’s a very big investment just for a seasonal. There are those who have ordered them and have been ruined,” he adds. “We are required to have a car that is less than five years old and that we can only use for eight years at a standstill. How are we going to amortize that investment if we only work six months of the year ?”.
Could a portion of the licenses be vacant?
Povedano estimates that around 20 to 25% of the seasonal licenses under the previous plan were given to diesel car drivers. And he warns that the tightening of requirements could lead to up to 35% of the seasonal licenses that are eventually granted being discarded by cab drivers. In addition to the diesel veto, it mentions other factors such as the increase in the cost of insurance policies, the fee to be paid and legislative changes in taxation.
“The problem,” says Povedano, “will not be now.” “Many cab drivers will ask for the license, but when they see the requirements, they will think twice before taking it out,” he assures. And he remarks: “It is not a transition: if I have had a car that has been a cab for five years: why can’t I have it for three more years”.
Specifically, from L’Arche have asked the City Council that for the seasonal could put any car that passed ITV and with less than eight years “and then yes, if in four years it has to change, the hybrid car is required”.
La Voz de Ibiza has contacted the City Council to know their position on the claims, but has not received a response so far. In any case, El Arca reports that Councilman Rubén Sousa has not given place to their proposal of possible exemptions for diesel vehicles.
Conflicting criteria
The affected drivers consider that the transition to a greener fleet is being done in a rushed manner, without taking into account the particularities of the sector. Among their complaints, they point out that only cab drivers must assume this change without similar restrictions in other transport sectors.
“I understand the need for a transition to a green model. But to do it from one plan to another seems excessive to me. Rather, dictatorial. It is something that only happens in the cab sector, because in the rest of the island diesel vehicles are driven. If we want to be green, we should be green for everyone,” says Povedano.
Not all cab drivers adhere to this request for exceptions. This is the case of Joan Marí Riera, part of the Agrupación de Autotaxis de las Islas Baleares, who advocates that the regulation be respected. “This can not make you ‘a la carte’. It cannot be that because my car is diesel or six years old, exceptions are requested. It can not be that now, they want to remove the diesel, let them put for four more years, “he tells La Voz de Ibiza.
More orders
Another issue that cab drivers led by Povedano have demanded to the City Council is that the period of temporary replacement due to breakdown is only 15 days. They request that, as in the case of fixed licenses, it should be a period of two months.
“In August, many factories close. It’s illogical that with the few workshops there are at that time they demand such celerity to repair a car. Last year I was hit in the back. I went to the workshop and they told me two weeks, but the car was in the workshop for 53 days,” he recalls.
The City Council has responded that it will evaluate this particular request.
In addition, they have insisted with their claim to the municipality that the seasonal ones be fixed, a plan that, as Povedano explained to La Voz de Ibiza, has been presented last year to avoid constant renewals and to guarantee profitability to the drivers.
The problem of the lack of a unified criterion between municipalities
The technical requirements for vehicles in relation to environmental care are one more chapter in the saga of complaints about the lack of unified criteria among municipalities to issue seasonal licenses.
In addition to the Ibiza seasonal plan, two others have been announced. While in Santa Eulària vehicles are already required to be ECO or Zero Emissions, in Sant Josep the current regulation is from 2015 and does not impose restrictions on the type of motorization.
From the Insular Federation of Taxis of Ibiza and Formentera(FITIE), its representative Toni Roig has remarked to La Voz de Ibiza that each municipality has established different criteria, which generates inequalities between cab drivers operating in different areas of the island.
“The new municipal regulations must be updated, the trend is that diesels have to be phased out,” he says. Marí Riera. And he questions: “It cannot be that every year we have to wait to see what rules are going to change”.
Continue reading:
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