The Supreme Court ruling striking down the limit of one VTC licence for every 30 taxis opens the Port of La Luz to platforms such as Uber and Cabify, stripping taxis of a historic stronghold in the transport of crews and cruise passengers. As this is a Supreme Court ruling, its impact will extend to the port of the capital of Tenerife. Whether political considerations lead authorities at the ports of Las Palmas to block VTCs across the board is another matter, but such a move would have little legal basis.
Since 1920, the road transport business at the Port of Las Palmas has operated according to an unchanging model. Maritime shipping agents, responsible for arranging the replacement of sailors, captains and vessel technicians, as well as the shore-side operations involving thousands of cruise passengers in transit, relied almost exclusively on local taxi fleets. However, the Supreme Court ruling overturning the restrictions imposed by the Cabildo of Gran Canaria and the Regional Federation of Canary Islands Taxis (FEDETAX) to prevent the issuing of 200 new chauffeur-driven vehicle (VTC) licences definitively changes the operational map of the port complex.
The legal setback for the outermost-region clause
In the case of Las Palmas, where the ruling has a direct impact, the high court’s decision removes the legal protection for the ratio of one VTC authorisation for every 30 taxis established under Canarian regulations. The Supreme Court concludes that neither the status of an outermost region (RUP), enshrined in Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), nor the island authorities’ arguments concerning territorial carrying capacity or public-space management demonstrate the need for or proportionality of restricting competition in relation to the freedom of establishment guaranteed by Article 49 of the TFEU, following the arguments put forward by the company Senza 2020 (Cabify). The ruling makes clear that the particular circumstances of the islands do not justify quantitatively shielding a protected sector.
Operational flexibility for maritime passengers
For the major shipping agents and cruise-terminal operators at the Port of La Luz, the mass arrival of platforms such as Uber and Cabify represents the introduction of long-demanded operational flexibility. The traditional taxi model suffered from serious rigidities in responding to critical demand peaks: the simultaneous movement of crews after weeks at sea or the staggered arrival of more than 10,000 passengers during multiple-ship port calls. The ability to schedule transfers at fixed rates, track journeys through positioning technology and consolidate billing directly with global transport companies brings island logistics into line with the standards required by international shipowners.
Corporate tendering and cost optimisation
At the port’s companies, the change in the landscape is viewed through the lens of costs and competitiveness. Until now, the non-regular transport of crew members to Gran Canaria Airport or the capital’s medical centres was subject to standard urban fares and random availability at the port’s taxi ranks. The arrival of professionalised VTC fleets allows shipping agents to tender transport contracts on a corporate scale, guaranteeing higher-end vehicles for shipping-company executives and adapted vans for group transfers involving vessel crews.
A structural blow to the taxi sector’s historic revenue base
At the opposite end of the spectrum, losing exclusive control over passengers and crews represents a structural blow to the taxi sector in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The port complex was one of the trade’s most stable and lucrative sources of revenue, with high-value direct services to the airport and tourist routes around the island. For the first time in the port’s history, taxi drivers face direct competition in a space where digital intermediation and advance bookings are taking precedence over the traditional use of taxi ranks. Opening the market removes the transport sector’s last corporate bastion in Gran Canaria, bringing a fare and service overhaul to the logistics hub of the mid-Atlantic from which shipping agents emerge as the main beneficiaries.
The article “Uber and shipping agents: End of taxi monopoly for crews and cruise passengers shakes up Canary Islands ports” was first published on canarymaritime.com.
