How many taxis does Mallorca need?

Expected to take five months, the director-general for mobility, Lorena del Valle, says the study "will give us the parameters and indicators that we are going to use to define our future fleet". Taxi and VTC customers will be asked for their opinions - whether supply is sufficient, satisfaction with the services, areas for improvement.

Del Valle adds that the study is a response to the taxi law approved by the Balearic Parliament in February and which is designed to restrict VTC operations in Mallorca and the Balearics.

The directorate is at the same time seeking to control the number of vehicles entering the Balearics. It is working with the Balearic Ports Authority and island councils to obtain precise data on vehicle arrivals. Above all, the government wants to be able to quantify the number of hire cars.

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The study is separate to the deliberations of the land transport working party that is one of twelve working parties set up for the government's social and political pact for sustainability. But results will be used by this working party.

Last weekend, Biel Moragues, president of one of Mallorca's taxi driver associations, recognised that taxis (and public transport) cannot cope in high season. But he argued that the solution was not more Uber or more taxis as there would just be more traffic jams.

Moragues was critical of Othman Ktiri, the high-profile CEO of OK Mobility and until recently the president of the Baleval car-hire firm association. "That guy says that, if necessary, he'll bring all the hire cars needed. Yes, another way of increasing the traffic jams that tourists and residents suffer."

In a recent interview Ktiri stated that hire cars are central to the current debate about the tourism model in Mallorca and the Balearics. While there have been calls to limit the number of hire cars, he made clear that he was firmly against limits.

* VTC = transport vehicle with driver; Uber is an example of a service that operates with VTC licences.