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Date Published: 02/08/2023

Three illegal taxi drivers busted on the Costa Blanca

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The unregulated cab drivers could each be fined 4,000 euros by Javea police

Three illegal taxi drivers busted on the Costa Blanca

Once summer takes hold on Spain’s thriving Costa Blanca, hailing a taxi seems like an impossible feat, with long queues streaming away from town centre ranks and phone calls to many local companies often going unanswered as demand far outstrips supply.

A distinct lack of cabs in many of Alicante province’s tourist hotspots means that illegal business is flourishing, with so-called ‘pirate taxis’ making a killing.

Three Javea drivers weren’t so lucky this week when local police caught them red-handed and they could now face fines of a whopping 4,000 euros each. The men, aged between 30 and 60, were all stopped at regular checkpoints and officers quickly established that they were ferrying paying customers to nightlife venues, at a time when the legal taxis were all booked out.

In Alicante and the rest of the country, taxi driving is heavily regulated and these pirate drivers were found to be operating without an appropriate licence granted by the City Council through the Department of Mobility.

In addition to transporting tourists without the required authorisation, which is very expensive and hard to come by, one of the major issues with pirate taxis is that they lack the unlimited liability insurance coverage that licenced drivers must have. To boot, they don’t have fixed rates so can charge whatever they like, often undercutting those taxis that operate within the law.

With this being said, it’s easy to see why many customers take their chances with unlicensed drivers when legal ones are in such short supply during the summer months up and down the Costa Blanca.

Even in the holiday hub of Alicante city, customers have been complaining that the ranks are empty of cabs in the centre during the busiest times, and the waits at the airport and train station can be long and arduous.

The drivers themselves are frustrated and Radio TeleTaxi Alicante believes the company needs around 40 more cars on the roads in order for the service to improve.

In other news: Driver slams into bar terrace in Torrevieja

Image: Freepik

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