More than ten thousand applications for VTC licenses are still in limbo in the Balearic Islands while the cab sector and the big platforms -with Uber at the center of the debate and Bolt on standby-remain expectant. The key to unblock that avalanche is the new cab and VTC regulation that develops Law 1/2024, still in process, and that will define how many authorizations fit on each island and who has the last word.
The law itself recognizes the magnitude of the problem: in 2023 alone, more than 10,000 VTC applications were submitted in the Balearic Islands, compared to a current fleet of 2,529 cab licenses and 739 VTC licenses, a figure that the preamble of the regulation describes as “totally disproportionate and environmentally unsustainable”. The Government has repeated this diagnosis in recent weeks, in an attempt to give relief to the cab sector.
A good part of these petitions -according to cab drivers, some 6,500 in Ibiza and 3,500 in Mallorca-are promoted by large business groups that already control thousands of licenses in other communities.
The moratorium approved by Law 1/2024 and later extended by decree law keeps frozen, for now, the granting of new cab and VTC licenses until the regulation becomes a reality.
What changes with the new regulation
The fifth and most recent draft of the regulation draws a board with several pieces, but a central idea: without prior passage through the municipalities, there will be no new VTCs on the street.
-
Town halls as the first key filter In order to be able to work normally, each VTC will need, in general, an urban authorization from the town hall of the municipality where the vehicle is domiciled and, later, the interurban authorization from the corresponding island council. This makes the consistories the first filter of the system: they are the ones who will have to decide whether to create urban VTC licenses, how many, under what conditions and in what terms. In addition, the draft establishes that the municipal ordinances that regulate urban transport must be adapted to the new framework within a maximum period of one year after the decree enters into force. Until then they will remain in force as long as they do not contradict the regulation.
-
In a transitional provision, the Ministry of Mobility is charged with setting, within a maximum period of fifteen days from the entry into force of the decree, the number of interurban authorizations (cabs and VTC) that may be granted on each island, according to the general criteria of Article 4: Human Pressure Index, weight of tourism, public transport network, major infrastructure, environmental impact, road congestion, etc.. This first figure may be assumed or adjusted by the island councils within one month.
-
Reinforced role of the councils Once the ceilings are set, the councils will be the ones to grant interurban VTC authorizations within the maximum quota assigned for their island. On the ground, this means that they will only be able to grant new authorizations if they fit within the fixed ceiling and if, in addition, there is the corresponding license or urban authorization in the municipality where the vehicle is domiciled.
In parallel, the regulation enshrines the principle of “each VTC on its own island”: authorizations domiciled in the Balearic Islands will be able to provide intercity services only within the territory of the island where they are domiciled, once the transition between the current regime and the new one has been completed.
In the case of Ibiza, where there is already a special regime of passenger collection that affects the entire island, the Agrupación de Autotaxis de Baleares has recalled in its allegations that the studies of licensing needs are still only done at the municipal level and claims that this “anomaly” is corrected, aligning the regulation with the opinions of the Consell Consultiu on the island competences.
The one-month window for “moving” licenses
One of the most sensitive points for Ibiza is in the third transitional provision of the draft. During the first month from the entry into force of the decree, holders of VTC licenses in force in the Balearic Islands may request the change of address of their license to another island other than the current one, provided that they can prove previous services in the community.
The fourth transitory provision establishes that the processing of new cab and VTC licenses and authorizations cannot begin until these changes of domicile have been made and it has been determined how many interurban authorizations are still in force on each island.
If, after these changes of domicile, the maximum number of authorizations set for an island is exceeded, the decree itself provides that the licenses that have served the least amount of time in that territory will be denied transfer.
On paper, the mechanism seeks to order a situation that today allows many VTCs to operate indiscriminately between islands. In practice, various players in the sector view this window with suspicion because of the risk that part of the fleets may try to concentrate on the most profitable islands, such as Ibiza, before the quotas are definitively closed.
And the 10,000 applications (and those that have been added)?
The big unknown is what will happen to the applications filed before and after Law 1/2024. The law suspended the granting of new cab and VTC licenses, but did not prevent requests from continuing to be registered. Those files remained in a sort of freezer while waiting for the regulation, which now establishes that those affected by the moratorium will have preference in the first calls for applications to be called within the new quota per island.
La Voz de Ibiza has asked the Govern how many VTC applications have been submitted in 2024 and 2025 -that is, after the entry into force of Law 1/2024-, but the Executive has not yet provided this data, key to understand what real volume may try to slip through the cracks of the new framework.
Nor has it specified when the regulation is expected to be finally approved. The process has been lengthened after the Consell Consultiu forced to reopen the public information process after considering that the text had changed substantially with respect to the initial version, which has added months to the calendar.
In this context, the recent ruling of the TSJIB adds another layer: it obliges to process again 600 applications from 2022-2023 “according to the regulations applicable at the time of the application”. This pushes to examine case by case and opens the door for other files to follow that path if the courts conclude that they were rejected with similar criteria.
An open board… with Ibiza at its center
As of today, the official message is clear: the Govern considers that authorizing 10,000 new VTCs would be “barbaric” and assures that only licenses that “the territory can absorb” will be granted. At the same time, it claims legal certainty in order not to chain new sentences like the one of the 600 VTCs.
But the real game will be played not only in Palma, but also – and above all – in the island councils and town halls, which will have to set quotas, adapt ordinances and, in practice, decide how many black cars – and how many cabs – will fit on the streets of Ibiza in the coming years.
