The Gran Canaria Cabildo has recently denied a total of 3,400 applications for licences of rental vehicles with a driver (VTC) on the island, which were submitted by three different companies, as reported by the Minister of Sustainable Mobility, Teodoro Sosa, who stressed that the decision is based on insularity and environmental criteria, and not on economic considerations.
Sosa says that allowing an additional 3,400 public passenger transport vehicles with drivers on the island would be completely disproportionate and distort the transport sector. To emphasize this, he explained that this figure exceeds the current number of taxi licenses in the 21 municipalities of the island, which currently stands at 2,656.
He claims that the companies that have applied are trying to take advantage of a recent ruling by the EU Court of Justice related to the Barcelona metropolitan area. This sentence was passed saying that the restriction on the licenses of transport vehicles with drivers is contrary to Community law.
The ruling questions the limitation of one VTC license for every 30 taxi licences, and gives the companies the opportunity to challenge any regional or municipal legislation that tries to apply this ratio of 1/30.
Sosa said that 102 VTC licenses have already been authorized in Gran Canaria, which exceeds the ratio of 1 for every 30 taxis. In addition, he made it clear that the island government will be on the side of the taxi drivers, since he considers that allowing any more licences would harm the sector and negatively affect the island's market.
He said that this request for 3,400 VTC licences in Gran Canaria is an "absurd" figure and, in his opinion is “totally excessive”. In any case, he insists that the Cabildo's decision complies with the legal mandate of the Government of the Canary Islands and is based on an environmental criterion of transport sustainability.
