Andrés Stinga, president of the Ajey-Tamia Taxi Cooperative Society, spoke this Wednesday on the program Buenos días, Lanzarote to address some issues regarding the taxi situation in Lanzarote and also the VIPO's arrival on the island, the new on-demand mobility service with a driver.
In this regard, Stinga revealed that this Tuesday he spoke with the president of the North and South Cooperative Society, who **will submit a written request to the Cabildo of Lanzarote to ask for explanations** about what type of service VIPO is. "We are clear that with the current law in the Canary Islands and with the temporary suspension of authorizations for both taxis and VTCs, it is made very clear that the cabildos have the authority in the regulation of road transport," he explained
Furthermore, he has announced that this Wednesday he will also submit a document to the Cabildo of Lanzarote. "What is clear to us is that these types of things cannot just appear out of nowhere, and we are going to start working. These vehicles must comply with regional and municipal regulations, have specific licenses, be registered, etc... and they must certainly also have authorizations from the municipal licenses of the town councils," he argued.
"There are other types of platforms where they advertise with private cars making transfers, and it gives the impression that this issue is not being regulated, so we are going to demand that the Cabildo of Lanzarote **regulate it through its inspectors** because it is doing us terrible damage," he continued.
The president of the Ajey-Tamia Taxi Cooperative Society has emphasized that he "is not issuing any threats," but that "we taxi drivers are a group to be reckoned with and we want our rights to be respected because when we obtain a taxi license it is because most of us have been in a public tender and it cannot be that a market is opened out of the blue".
Regarding self-criticism within the taxi sector, Stinga has pointed out that "they are open to modernizing" and that "we are aware that people nowadays want to open an app and know when the taxi will arrive, and I believe it's a great job we have to do and we will try to tackle it as best we can because all of that is money." In fact, he announced that this week they will meet with the San Bartolomé City Council and will have another meeting with the Cabildo to "address these kinds of things."