Spanish Cab

The taxist strikes have, as fears have it, extended to many Spanish towns and cities-in Barcelona and Madrid, where the city' s arterial roads are literaly crowded by defiant cab drivers-and are in danger of destroying important traffic junctions such as aerodromes and railway yards during the Spanish midsummer time.

These result from a poorly solved dispute - approached with remarkable apathy, although warned - between cab operators, the traditionally privately owned means of transportation, and chauffeur-driven cars, the so-called FTCs, which run on electronic platform and compete directly with cabs. They believe that they suffer from dishonest fair trade and want tighter regulations.

Why the dispute has now explode is because the National Market and Competition Commission and the Ministry of Public Works have blockaded an arrangement between the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (AMB) and cab operators to restrict VTC licences to one per 30 cabs. However, the reaction of cab riders to this ruling was excessive and totally inadequate for a working group supposed to believe in negotiations.

Current discussions with the Ministry of Public Works are aimed at reaching an understanding on the 1:30 relationship, giving power to the local government to govern city transport and establishing the AMB arrangement as a blueprint for all Spanish cities. Taxis must agree that their claims may be legitimated, but must be resolved through bargaining.

It is also not sensible to immediately oppose the Ministry of Public Works' suggestion to adopt a decreed recognising one VTC licence for every 30 taxilices from 14 September. The continuation of road protest, where violent acts can easily erupt, is not the best way to protect the cab world.

Taxi cabs are right about one thing: The VTC company is a transport company which as such must meet the same standards as a taxi. There is a need for this to be recognised and rigorously regulated in the Ordinance. However, taxi drivers must also recognise that the UTCs are staying here and that the municipal transport sector has benefited from them.

When this fact leads to more occasional and vital protest, cab riders will no longer be in the right. And of course, the taxonomy must also cover schemes to prevent guesswork about the pricing of licences.