The association ‘Taxi Sí Canarias’, which claims to represent more than 600 professionals in the sector on the islands, has called for protest convoys on November 25, December 2, and January 21, demanding the annual review of taxi fares, more control over the implementation of VTCs, and more resources against illegal transport.
The organization announced this Monday in a statement that the mobilizations will consist of slow vehicle processions that will depart simultaneously from different municipalities in Tenerife and Gran Canaria and will converge in the island capitals in front of administrative headquarters.
The association has indicated that it is in contact with professionals from Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro to extend the protests to the entire archipelago.
Among its main demands is the automatic annual update of urban and interurban fares linked to real operating costs.
The group considers that the isolated increases agreed upon in recent years are insufficient and "are a patch that harms the user," and criticizes that these agreements with employers do not include "the grassroots workers who are behind the wheel day by day."
The entity has also expressed its concern about the entry of new authorizations for vehicles for hire with a driver (VTC) following the regulatory changes approved in the Canary Islands and has called for more administrative and budgetary resources to control their implementation.
"It is feared that the arguments of the islands' road carrying capacity, traffic congestion levels, public space management, environmental objectives, and air quality improvement will be insufficient to curb more than 9,000 VTCs that are involved in contentious-administrative processes, not counting those that may be requested later," it indicated in the note.
Taxi Sí Canarias also denounces the lack of sector participation in the drafting of regional regulations and calls for a "democratized and faithfully represented" regional forum to address the situation of taxi drivers on the islands.
The association criticizes that the regional Minister of Mobility, Pablo Rodríguez, and the Director General of Transport, María Fernández, refuse to listen to "the drivers."
Furthermore, it denounces the lack of effective controls against intrusion, especially in airports, ports, and tourist areas, and calls for a strengthening of inspection that, in its opinion, "has remained mere wet paper," and of police resources.
The entity has called on the administrations involved to establish working groups with the aim of defending and improving taxi service and avoiding its paralysis on the scheduled dates.
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