AS ELCHE Taxi drivers strive to cut out as much competition as possible for airport fares, a license plate reader is about to be installed to seek out ‘black’ taxis. The National Commission of Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) has approved the installation of a license plate reader to control the entry of what they term ‘foreign taxis’ at the airport in Alicante-Elche, which is limited to six monthly services. A foreign taxi is decreed to be any taxi not from Elche.
At the moment, the Elche police force is in charge of trying to control and to respond to requests for permission by foreign taxi drivers who wish to pick up at the airport, but Elche’s Councillor for Transportation, Justino Delgado noted “you can not keep track of this ‘very comprehensively’, all year long.”
Such a facility already exists at Barcelona-El Prat and Delgado added: "this is going to solve a historical problem that has cost a lot of money to our drivers." The licence plate reader costs about 7,000 euros, which will be paid for by the Elche council, who will also be responsible for its maintenance. It’s expected to be installed by the end of next month. However, Barcelona is Spain’s largest city and very few ‘foreign’ taxis have ever had a major presence there.
Adding to their protectionism, Elche’s Department of Transportation will be starting disciplinary proceedings against those taxi drivers who they accuse of exceeding the limitation of six services per month. This limitation was launched last May following a consensus decision by the Department of Transportation, the Elche council and the Association of Auto-Taxi Elche. At this time, Elche taxi drivers slashed tyres, smashed windows, broke off mirrors, verbally abused and threw raw eggs at ‘foreign’ taxis and their drivers.
The Elche Taxi association noted that before May 2014, “the level of intrusiveness in the airport was about 40 foreign daily drivers, mainly from Torrevieja, Benidorm, Murcia and Cartagena versus 82 from Elche.” These figures should almost be expected because approximately 85% of those travelling through the airport are foreigners, with just a tiny percentage of these owning property in or around Elche.
Elche taxi drivers have often been accused of wishing to travel south by the AP7 rather that the N332, as the route is longer and more expensive. Being from Elche, most rely upon Sat Nav systems to find their destination, and there have been many complaints about Elche drivers getting lost trying to find urbanisations and streets that are not logged into such a system and rarely mapped. Their lack of local knowledge, little or no English and the use of the taximeter rather than offering a flat rate have led to more complaints. In part, the success of the Torrevieja Airport Bus service is partly due to the dissatisfaction with the service offered by some Elche taxis plus ‘foreign’ taxis are considering taking a case to the European Courts due to the anti-competitive nature and protectionism practices employed to keep out foreign taxis from the area.
Source RTN