The Ibiza City Council has imposed a fine of 1,000 euros on the seven taxi drivers who refused to cover two trips for two cancer patients to the Can Misses hospital. This is the minimum amount with which the very serious infractions are penalized, which can reach up to 6,000 euros.
The second deputy mayor of Ibiza, Aitor Morrás, justifies that the technical services have considered that the minimum amount should be imposed as this is “the first time” that taxi drivers have committed this infraction and, therefore, “this is not a reoffence”.
After detecting a complaint on social networks in July about the problems of an oncology patient who had booked a cab in advance to get to the hospital, the City Council requested a report from the Taxi Federation of the Island of Eivissa (Fitie) about what happened and to identify the cabs that refused to cover this essential service. The Consistory itself, as it has access to the GPS platform of the Fitie, could also check the waiting times and the taxis of the municipality that refused the trip.
When a taxi driver receives a service by GPS they can reject it directly or, if they do not answer in a few minutes, the system assigns it to the next closest one. In this case, up to five cab drivers from Vila rejected or turned a deaf ear to this service, but from the blank times recorded among them, it is assumed that taxi drivers from other municipalities also refused to cover the service, according to Morrás. The Fitie only delivers to the City Council the list of cab drivers from their municipality who refused the service.
Subsequently, in August the same episode was repeated with another oncology patient who had to call up to three times to the Radio Taxi service to get a cab. Two cab drivers have been fined one thousand euros each.
On the other hand, the City Council plans to open a sanction file after finding that in recent days two people who had requested a cab adapted for disabled customers had to wait for an hour . The first case occurred at the port stop and, while the user was waiting, the cab drivers were asking through the internal radio (cello) for an adapted cab to arrive at the stop. Finally, the service had to be covered by a conventional cab.
Shocking behaviour from some taxi drivers
The same thing happened on Saturday. A customer who had ordered an adapted cab from a hotel had to wait at least 50 minutes. Morrás says that today he will ask for a report to the Fitie to clarify what happened and instruct, if appropriate, a sanction file.
Morrás criticizes that there are taxi drivers who refuse services because they are not interested in covering them, but stresses that it is “even more shocking that adapted taxis do it”.
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