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Our Readers write...
TAXI MAFIA
In AD 79, disaster struck Pompeii in the shape of a volcanic eruption. In the sixteenth century half the population of Europe was killed by the Plague. In 2009, Ibiza has been hit by the curse of the Taxi Mafia. Too strong to be controlled by an effete government the Taxistas are sewing the seeds of tourist decimation.
On an island swelled by as many as 330,000 visitors at any time in the holiday season, the dearth of taxis guarantees airport queues of up to two hours duration. The unwitting tourist steps happily through airport doors only to have the smile wiped off his or her face.
No matter it is 2:30 a.m. and you have two toddlers, tired, crying and needing their bed. No matter that even when you finally manage to reach the front of the queue you find that the taxi cannot provide a child safety seat. No matter that taxi doesn't bother to offer them because the law in Spain does not require such security for your child, even though you want to provide that protection. No matter that there are six in your party and you are forced to split up immediately upon arriving on the island because the taxis that eventually can offer you a lift only seat 4 people. No matter, that is, if you are a licensed taxi. Their conception and regard for the tourist is no more than that held by a python for a rabbit.
Yet although more cars are needed, if only for the season on a temporary basis, to even begin to satisfy public demand, the Taxistas say 'No!'. No, to the extent that strikes are held at festival times, thwarting and frustrating public needs - the very people they are supposed to serve.
In light of the lack of licensed taxis, an illegal taxi service was born. These operate without a licence and ease waiting numbers in queues at airports and clubs etc. No one is suggesting they should be allowed to operate in this way. However, even if they wanted an operator's licence, they can't get one - the Taxi Mafia have seen to that, and this is a matter of public record.
Which brings me to the other public service that now lies condemned, and which is of far greater consequence to the prosperity of the island. For years villa rental agencies have relied on private hire vehicles and drivers that operate a private client, agency and driver system. When a client wants a car sent to their, often remote, mountain villa to collect and deliver him or her and others to a club or restaurant, s/he rings the agency. The agency, who know all their drivers, then call the driver who responds accordingly.
The driver provides a welcome service to and from the villa, usually getting to know the customer well during their stay on the island. More often than not, these villas are situated where taxis will not go; rugged caminos and isolated sites ensure that. If the villa-renting tourists have their wits about them and know where their villa is situated they may be able to get a lift there FROM a busy pick up location. Taxis certainly won't come TO a villa as a pick up service to a destination - why should they when there is plenty of easy business flagging them down in the streets or waiting outside clubs and airports every night? Who wouldn't stick to easy pickings like those instead of potentially getting lost in the middle of a rural location and never finding the villa. Private hire drivers are not fazed by conditions or location, they are made aware with printed directions in advance, while villa renters constantly complain to private hire drivers that taxis NEVER turn up following a request over the phone
Private hire agency drivers never pick up from the street, airport or club queues. They operate purely on advance booking - with journeys often planned days and weeks in advance, sometimes even before the tourist arrives on the island. Private hire vehicles tend to seat 6 to 8 people so larger parties can be catered for which is usually the case in villa rentals. Now this service has been stopped. So now, we have a situation that spells doom for the villa rental industry. The very people that bring vast sums of money into the island economy are being inconvenienced to the extent that they will think twice before returning.
Villa renters, and many hotel customers too, tend to want the more exclusive service provided through the private hire agencies. Often they don't want taxis even if they could get them to turn up at their holiday residence. They like the advanced itinerary, they like getting to know the driver during their stay, they like to know that they can expect a little more from their service than a taxi provides, they like not having to split their party up if it can be helped, they like to know that car seats are available for the protection of their children. All these things and more the private hire driver offers, where a taxi service doesn't. Of course they are occasionally happy to use taxis in circumstances that fit their demands and requirements, such as when a large party splits up during the course of an evening.
It may take 3-4 years, but in an already recessed economy, this island will pay the price for its inability to serve the real need for service to people who spend tens of thousands of pounds to rent luxury villas. When these wealthy tourists turn their back on Ibiza, maybe the island can respond over time to bring in thousands more lower spending tourists to offset the enormous shortfall in income the island will suffer from as a result. This of course is unlikely, everyone knows the island is already pricing itself out of reach of the lower income bracket clientele. But imagine if somehow it were possible. It's not just economic sustainability the island needs to focus on; there is the environmental impact that tourists have on the island that is of consideration here. Contemplate the effect that a successful campaign to balance the books by replacing the few wealthy tourists with thousands of lower income tourists would have on the islands beauty and environmental footprint.
Then again, why bother even imagining such a future when the economic and environmental status of the island can so much more easily be maintained and increased by keeping the footfall down and the income up by encouraging wealthy holiday makers to keep returning by allowing the services they demand to operate. This client base visit beaches, clubs, bars, souvenir shops and supermarkets just like other tourists, they just spend much, much more money.
Not only that, this client base feels the recession much less than others. Maybe they earn a little less during a recession but they remain wealthy and can still afford to take their holiday and spend as they wish, unlike the rest of us. This is exactly why island policy should be encouraging them to return, yet the opposite is happening. It is maddeningly myopic, stupefyingly short-sighted! As a basic exercise in what a modern, sustainable, green accounting agenda should consider, it's blatantly obvious what the approach should be. A high school student could work it out. It's very simple really, and the approach isn't one that only benefits taxi drivers.
The reality is that private hire drivers will, and have had, their cars impounded along with an initial fine of €6K. The few that still run the risk are all that remains of a vital core service which is in decline and will probably be extinct by 2010. The wealthy tourist will follow suit shortly after. This island spends large sums on international holiday fairs - yet the Tourist Board rug is being pulled from beneath its feet. People will NOT come back if the services they demand are not there, they have the money to choose where they want to go. This madness, fed by greed and intimidation, will see to that.
Why the government does not provide private hire licences for agency drivers is mystifying. Such a licence would prevent any fear of normal 'taxi pick-up behaviour' occurring because private hire drivers have no interest in what they consider a downmarket move.
Additionally and disturbingly, isolated as they are, villa occupiers will use the rental car they normally reserved just for day trips to beaches and shops etc as a means to get to evening destinations. With the best will in the world, this will inevitably result in an increase in drink/drug driving. So in the final analysis, is the government in charge of the island - or the Taxi Mafia?
Taxistas cannot provide an adequate service as it is, so what do they have to fear from the agency driver? Absolutely nothing (in fact they benefit, as private hire drivers bring these customers to places that taxis are willing to pick up from, while the current state of play would have them stuck in their villa for the duration of their holiday)- but you might as well tell it to the marines. The island is already on its knees, and the knock-on effect this latest policy will produce will be felt very shortly.
Private hire (not taxi) licences must be made available if the island villa industry
is to survive. Kill that and you kill Ibiza.
A.M.P
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(ibiza-sun/letters to the editor)
