Taxi drivers in Benidorm have been protesting outside of Town Hall for three days now. The Benidorm and Marina Baixa Taxi Workers’ Union got together again today from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. to make their demands to the local government known: more licences for taxis in the town so that people don’t have to wait as long.
This is what Juan Manuel Ruiz, president of the new association, says. He also promises that they will keep protesting every Friday until the City Council finds an answer. To do this, they have a meeting on February 18th that is very important. Other groups in the same field, as well as the Councillor for Mobility, Francis Muñoz, will be there.
Taxi drivers pay attention to two things. On the one hand, there aren’t enough licences to meet the demand, especially during the busiest tourist months. This time frame has grown over time, and they now think that the cars are on the street 24 hours a day for about eight months of the year. In particular, from Easter until after the Major Patron Saint Festivals. Other than these months, they also have busy times at certain times of the year, like around Christmas. In this way, Ruiz says they have been “overwhelmed with work” since 2023.
On the other hand, they stress how “particularly serious” it is for permits for cars that have been modified. Taxi drivers say that people could have to wait up to an hour during the busy season. Because of this, customers complain to the workers “every day,” and the lines that are always full give the business a bad name, as Ruiz says. So, they stress how important it is to get more cabs with these features without changing regular licences into adapted ones. In other words, a step that makes the daily fleet bigger.
The City Council claims they go beyond the rates set by the Taxi Law, even doubling the maximum number of permits. They have 232 licences right now. “We are well above what the law says,” he said. As for permits for people with limited movement, they have 14. What he said was that he wanted to rise because “Benidorm is a city that is very committed to accessibility.” At least 5% of the amount must be paid, and the town has 6.3% so far.
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