Torrevieja is recruiting taxi drivers... but it's almost impossible to get a licence
Requirements to obtain a driving permit in the Costa Blanca city "are impossible to meet"
Torrevieja, like the rest of the Costa Blanca, is suffering from a severe shortage of licensed taxi drivers, which has led to a proliferation of so-called illegal ‘pirate’ cabs, especially during the busy summer months.
To better serve the needs of the city, Torrevieja has opened applications for 16 new taxi drivers, a process that will be divided up into several hiring phases. This should be great news for the area, but the City Council has been slammed by local councillor Pablo Samper for making it next to impossible for would-be drivers to meet the “inaccessible technical requirements.”
A public tender has been launched to hire the first six drivers with a deadline of March 24. These will be added to the current 84 taxis operating in Torrevieja.
But Mr Samper has pointed out that since the tender was opened, interested parties have been having “serious difficulties in being able to submit bids.” The complexity of the procedure shows that the process is designed “without taking into account the reality of the sector,” the opposition councillor said.
He believes that the process requires a level of computer skills and knowledge of administrative procedures “that is unacceptable for any ordinary person.”
The new drivers will be selected based on a points system and one of the award criteria is to give more points to bidders using hybrid or electric vehicles, especially vans adapted for people with reduced mobility.
However, according to Samper, “the lack of supply on the market makes this requirement practically impossible to meet, since there are currently no hybrid vans adapted for Euro taxis available in dealerships, and the models that could meet the conditions have delivery times of 4 to 6 months.”
Furthermore, once purchased, these vehicles must be modified to accommodate disabled people, which adds an additional 3-5 weeks of waiting. Some hybrid models cannot even be adapted, as the batteries are located on the underside of the vehicle, preventing the installation of ramps.
Taxis also can’t be older than five years, and more points are awarded to newer vehicles.
Despite these difficulties, the City Council requires that the awarded licenses be operational within 60 days, “which makes this process, quite simply, unfeasible,” said Samper.
“We are faced with an incomprehensible technical process, unattainable deadlines and criteria that cannot be met. The City Council must immediately correct these errors and make access to a taxi license viable, fair and transparent," the councillor concluded.
Image: Archive
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