The video surveillance system installed at the Ibiza airport by the City Council of Sant Josep with the aim of detecting cases of illegal transport of people has caught six ‘pirate taxi drivers’. The offenders face a fine of 6,001 euros in addition to having their vehicles immobilized and taken to the depot.
Although they are still in the testing phase, the Consistory recognizes that these cameras are already beginning to bear fruit. There are three installed: one at the airport entrance, another at the exit and a third in the restricted access lane. At the moment, only the part that alerts the Policía Local is activated, which will be complemented with a system that will automatically manage the complaint.
In this sense, the City Council is working on a list that excludes all those vehicles of service companies that regularly come to the airport. For example, “we must exclude courtesy vehicles of certain establishments and that is what we are working on now so that they are not included in the reporting system”, municipal sources point out.
Alerts for pirate taxis
Currently, the cameras generate alerts that are sent to a terminal and this is what makes it possible to detect the suspicious pirate taxi vehicle and act immediately. “They launch the alert of the vehicles that are on the blacklist and checks are made in the area. Then, the alert is issued and the agent has the margin to wait for the ‘pirate’ at the exit of the airport and check that they are carrying out an illegal activity”, the City Council indicates. And it is at that moment when the car is loaded with customers.
Also, the Consistory is aware, after conversations with cab drivers operating at the airport, that there is a “decrease in illegal operations in the area”, so they note the “deterrent effect” that the video surveillance system has had for pirate taxis.
However, the president of the Insular Taxi Federation, Antoni Riera, points out that “there is a group of cab drivers who take license plates and tell me that there are still many ‘pirate taxis'”. Yes it is true, he recognizes, that they operated less at the airport and more at ‘beach club’s and in some specific beaches. “Before it was easier to identify the delocalized vans, but now they are private cars with white license plates”, which prevents their quick detection.
As of May 31st, cab drivers had identified more than 400 vehicles operating illegally. “If we have these figures in May, in July and August there will be more,” laments Riera. “We hope that the security forces put controls in place, which we have evidence that they do, but there is still a lot to do,” he concludes.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.