The sector of vehicles with driver transport (VTC) has entered fully into the debate opened by the accumulation of about 10,000 applications for licenses that threaten to alter the current model of mobility in the Balearic Islands. The executive president of Unauto VTC, José Manuel Berzal Andrade, has rejected an uncontrolled growth of the sector, but has accused the Government of Marga Prohens of legislating “hand in hand with the cab sector“.
Speaking to Onda Cero, Berzal said that the regional government is aware of the imbalance between supply and demand for transport, both for residents and tourists, and warned that the situation “can become very complicated”. In his opinion, the Govern did not act “in time and form”, which has led to the current legal uncertainty.
This scenario is marked by a recent ruling of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB), which obliges the Government to process 600 VTC licenses denied in 2022. A resolution that could be extended to all the more than 10,000 accumulated applications, of which about 3,500 correspond to Mallorca and about 6,500 to Ibiza.
Berzal has defended that the denial of these authorizations did not comply with Spanish and European regulations, and has stressed that the problem was caused by not foreseeing that many businessmen would apply for licenses in the face of a restrictive legal framework. However, he insisted that his organization does not support a massive granting of authorizations either.
From Unauto VTC defend that the sector should complement the cab and public transport, not replace them, and are committed to a professionalized model and away from speculation. In this sense, Berzal has proposed a framework of coexistence similar to that existing in communities such as Madrid or Andalusia, adapted to the uniqueness of the Balearic Islands.
Currently, the Balearic Islands has 2,529 cabs and 739 VTC, while Law 1/2024 keeps the granting of new licenses paralyzed until the approval of a specific regulation, still in process. The cab sector considers the applications a “hecatomb”, and the Govern insists that it will process them with legal certainty, although it rules out approving them en bloc.
