The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, has reported that the Canary Islands Price Commission has supported the increase in taxi service fares in the capital of Lanzarote. The council has defended in a press release that this increase "will allow a substantial improvement of this public transport service to the more than 70,000 residents in the capital municipality".
Yonathan de León, who in the middle of this week held a meeting in Arrecife with the general director of Commerce and Consumption of the Government of the Canary Islands, David Mille Pomposo, received the news that the Price Commission had accepted the request of the Arrecife City Council for the update of taxi fares, "which until now was among the lowest in the Canary Islands", the institution has pointed out.
During this first term of office, Yonathan de León and the Councilor for Mobility and Transport, Mario González Altube, held multiple meetings with all taxi drivers to decide on ways to improve the public transport service of taxis in the capital of Lanzarote.
The union had been demanding for years the price increase that would allow covering the high cost increases that this sector has registered, like many others in Spain, both for the increases in labor costs, the increase in spare parts and repairs, insurance, and inflation.
With that low rate, among the lowest in Spain, as evidenced by different studies, taxi license owners "had serious difficulties in hiring employees to cover the three shifts during the 24 hours, and make it possible for users to have a greater presence of auto taxi vehicles in service during the 24 hours of the day, seven days a week".
Thus, from the Department of Mobility and Transport, a study was commissioned to determine the increases in this rate. The increase was approved by the plenary of the Arrecife City Council last December, and after the mandatory public exhibition, its increase was agreed without receiving allegations this past February.
According to the commitment that Mayor Yonathan de León acquired with this group of taxi drivers, on February 4 the plenary agreement was submitted to the Canary Islands Price Commission. Now, this entity has given its mandatory final approval, according to the mayor.
The Arrecife City Council must publish the new tariff list in the Official Gazette of the Province in the coming days for its entry into force, as soon as it officially receives the agreement from the Vice-Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Consumption.
The municipal government has claimed this achievement in a statement and has reported that they will register its entry into force in the coming days after its validation by the Canary Islands Price Commission.
In addition, the City Council, through the Area of Mobility and Transport, is finalizing the holding of the mandatory tests to obtain the taxi driver's license that will enable more professionals to meet the new demands of Arrecife.