27/11/2004 00:00
TW
0
By Humphrey Carter TAXI drivers, worried about the impact the new Palma metro service will have on their jobs, are calling on the local government to consider offering cabbies alternative employment on the new rail system.

It is estimated that as many as 500 cabbies could be made surplus to requirements once the metro is up and running and yesterday, the president of the Small Business Association's taxi commission, Gabriel Moragues, suggested that the government should start considering training schemes for cabbies forced out of work.

Gabriel Moragues said that, at present, there are 400 surplus taxi drivers in Palma and that during the winter, a good third of the city's 1.246-strong fleet of taxis are not operating due to the lack of trade.

The Son Castello industrial estate is one of the busiest pick-up and drop-off points for Palma cabbies at present, mainly because of the severe lack of public transport serving the area. However, once the metro is operating, the city's taxi fleet will lose one of its biggest sources of business, along with the University and the area around Son Sardina.

Moragues admitted that the metro project has presented Palma taxi drivers with quite a serious problem.
He said that over the past 15 years, as more and more hotels have closed down in the areas of El Terreno and Cala Major, taxi trade gradually dropped off but now, the metro is going to kill trade for many as, because of the high licence fees, cabbies will no longer be able to compete with cheaper local transport and their taxi licence will eventually be worthless.

For example, Moragues said that last year a taxi licence was worth 150'000 euros, this year they are being sold on for 132.000. As business drops and more and more taxis become surplus, the once prized licences will become worthless and cabbies will be out of work.

Moragues, whose commission represents the best part of 70 percent of Palma's taxi fleet, said yesterday that he hopes to open talks with the government and Palma city council soon to discuss offering a certain number of taxi drivers the opportunity of being trained and taking up new employment on the metro service.

He also said that talk of the University line being just the first phase of further links has also caused concern, although further connections will take years to plan and build.