The taxi association which is a member of the Confederation of Balearic Business Associations has delivered a report to the Balearic government which highlights alleged illegal practices by Uber drivers.
The report for the association was prepared by a firm of private investigators. It is now in the hands of the government's director-general for mobility, Maria Lorena del Valle. The president of the association, Antoni Bauzá, says that it will be up to her and her department to take decisions based on the report's findings.
"Any transport company must comply with regulations. It cannot be that some of us have to comply with certain obligations and others do not." Bauzá hasn't specified the irregularities, merely saying that there are several things, but it is believed that one of them is not observing the 30-minute rule, the minimum time for advance bookings of an Uber vehicle; all bookings have to be made in advance.
Biel Moragues, president of another taxi association, demanded immediate government action in the summer because of non-compliance with this particular rule. He also called for inspections by the employment ministry, as there were suspicions that Uber was using false self-employed drivers or was hiring workers for activities different to those that they were actually performing. The hiring of false self-employed workers is part of a case that the taxi sector in Barcelona has raised against Uber.
There has been controversy ever since Uber launched its service in Mallorca in June - specifically for Palma, Calvia, Andratx and Llucmajor. While the taxi associations have made their complaints, Uber drivers have made their own - constant harassment by taxi drivers.
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Peter PerfectSorry but the taxi association has used violence and coercion to support their nepotism - beating up, intimidating, and photographing drivers - to me that is a mafia. And now they hire private investigators to spy on and publish a report on the ills of Uber when we all know if there was a report on the taxi drivers it would be 10x longer. I only hope that the free market prevails through all these smokescreens being used to protect generations of inherited monopolistic taxi licenses.
I agree with the comments below but lets call it nepotism and not mafia. It seems to come down to those in control of the taxis that seem to think they have a god given right to run a cartel at prices they set and not set by market forces which is what a normal business would do when faced with competition especially one that is better, more reliable and cheaper than their monopoly.
Once again the words taxi and mafia appear together. For way too long taxi associations have had pretty much their own way in governing how taxis operate here in Mallorca. A taxi service is a market place like any other and it is about time the term " free market" was applied so that we, the using public, get more taxis and a better service at a competitive market price .
Here we go again. TAXI MAFIA strikes again! Seems that if you are a taxi driver or a hunter here in Mallorca, you get special privileges. Why is that?
Wow what a taxi mafia! Anyone have a report on taxi drivers?