The Majorcan Association of Self-Employed Taxi Workers (AMTAT), integrated into Pimem, assured that the ruling of the Constitutional Court that annuls the 30 minutes of pre-processing for VTCalso leaves room for the Prohens government to regulate and establish regulations that differentiate services from the tax on vehicles with driver (VTC).
This was assured by the president of the organization, Bienne Moraguesthat, from his point of view, the judicial decision has a “negative” appearance, since taxis and VTCs “are not the same”. Furthermore, he accused VTCs of “Capture customers on public roads, stop at taxi ranks and wandering the public highway in search of services.” Despite this, Moragues stressed that the court recognizes that the government has the constitutional right to “adjust the balance between the two groups.”
Likewise, he referred to another ruling of the Constitutional Court in which he ruled on the powers in matters of transport and in which he assured that it had been established that, since there was no land transport in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, the exclusive powers fell to the autonomous communities.
For this future regulation, Taxis-Pimem demanded that it be based on the decisions of the Supreme and the Constitutional, and Do not allow yourself to pick up customers on elevated public roads or stop at taxi ranks.among other problems.
Moragues stressed that it would instead be a “unfair competition“, Because VTCs offer the same service as taxis with free rates, freedom of movement, the vehicle they want and without restrictions, while the taxi sector is “set on the teeth“.
In this sense, he said that his entity would call an assembly with its affiliates for the month of October, because in September there is still enough work and they want to first clarify the legal aspect with the Government and the parties represented in Parliament.
Government announces meetings to achieve balance
The Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility, Jose Luis MateoHe announced on Wednesday the Government’s intention to hold meetings with the VTC and taxi sector with the aim of achieve a balance between two activities which was described as “different” and so that they “don’t crash” into each other.
In statements to the media after the ruling of the Constitutional Court (TC) that approves the suspension of the minimum 30-minute pre-contract established by the Balearic Law of 2019, the mobility manager insisted that the taxi and the VTC are complementary activities “intended to live in one way or another”.
Mateo referred to the mobility study associated with the new VTC regulations promoted this year that will allow, with data, how many new licenses and authorizations can be obtained for each modality.
The minister stressed that decisions in this regard will be taken when the sentence is received and its impact and scope will be studied in depth. “At that time, we will know what path we must travel together,” he added.
Mateo, who did not comment on whether or not to maintain the 30-minute pre-contract, recalled that the ruling opens the door to the possibility for the LACC to introduce differentiations.
