"We are giving a terrible service." That is what the president of the Arrecife Taxi Cooperative, Lito Guillén, considers, due to the problems that are being generated in some tourist municipalities and specifically at the airport itself. For that reason, he has once again raised an issue that other professionals in the sector oppose: the insularization of the service, modifying the municipal ordinances and leaving the powers in the hands of the Cabildo.
“We complained during the pandemic that tourism wasn't coming, and now it's coming, we mistreat it. That makes them leave here stressed and with a third-world sensation of Lanzarote,” says Guillén.
“The important thing here is the user, the tourist, who is precisely the one who leaves the economy to the island of Lanzarote,” says the president of the Arrecife Cooperative.
“Years ago I asked that the municipal ordinance be insular and not from the town hall. Let the Cabildo regulate it through its inspectors, who have their reports for that and know perfectly well the demand at each moment,” he said on Radio Lanzarote – Onda Cero.
“Then we complain about labor intrusion”, Guillén criticizes, in relation to the possibility that transport companies such as Uber or Cabify may enter the Island. “This situation is being fueled by the town halls with the municipal ordinances,” he adds.
Lito Guillén explains that this change in regulation should include that, if there are people waiting for a taxi and there are none in their municipality, a taxi from another municipality should come. “It is unforgivable that a person is anywhere on the island and sees an empty taxi, only because it has the roof painted a different color,” he questions.
“If a municipality has 60 reservations for a day and you only have 30 cars, what are you going to do with the other 30?”, questions the president of the cooperative, who insists that this situation would be solved if there was an insular ordinance.
“We have the latest technology, why don't we develop it”
Guillén believes that technology should also be used to know at all times the reality of the service in each of the municipalities.
“We have the latest technology in fleet control and management, why don't we develop it?”, asks the president of the cooperative. And he assures that through the central office, to which all the municipalities except San Bartolomé are connected, it is known at all times “how many taxis are operating”.
“With the technology, the screen opens and shows the situation in each of the taxis that are free. And if in Arrecife we need it in the hospital, and there is a free taxi in Playa Blanca, then it is sent and does the service that is needed,” he argues.
What he flatly denies is that more licenses are needed, which is the issue that arises when queues are generated at the airport or when tourists find it difficult to get a taxi, as the employers' association has been warning for months. “We have too many taxis”, replies Lito Guillén, who insists that the solution is to “get hold of the existing taxi fleet”.
