Taxi drivers in Barcelona up in arms

Taxi drivers in Barcelona are up in arms and want to take off the streets around 2,750 taxis because they say there’s not enough work to go around. According to the 3 big taxi unions, STAC, GTI and ATAC taxi earnings are down between 35% and 40% and they want to propose reducing the taxi fleet by up to half.

This is not a measure that all Barcelona’s taxi drivers approve of however. Apparently there are many taxi drivers who do a 12 hour shift or more to earn around 100 euros. This measure has been proposed as something temporary while the demand for taxis is low due to the crisis.

Lluis Berbel, general secretary of STAC in Barcelona noted “One only has to look at the taxi ranks, they’re always full of cabs”.

The unions also want more inspections, more bus/taxi lanes and to limit the amount of salaried taxi drivers that exist in Barcelona. There exists a phenomenon called ” el doble turno” or double shift whereby a taxi is on the streets 24/7. There are about 2,600 double shift taxis in Barcelona!

Taxi drivers in Barcelona have always struck me as a greedy bunch of mafiosos. I have a few taxi driver friends too but they seem to fit the same bill. I mean, they all seem to plead poverty and say that their jobs are in perril and that they don’t earn hardly anything. It must be some sort of disease as most of them have 2 or three properties, kids in private schooling and luxury holidays! After one of them telling me that things were bad, his son promptly became a “cabbie”, buying both a license and a new taxi – WTF!!

There are also the greedy bunch, too. These are the ones that have a taxi or two and double team it with a “salaried” cab driver. This is the best part; the owner of the cab license receives 60% of the earnings and the poor sod who does a 14 hour shift gets a whopping 40% – pukka!

I’m afraid they can’t hold a candle to London’s black cab drivers either. They are true professionals who have done 3 year’s graft on “The Knowledge” and aren’t allowed to sell their licenses for around 100k like they do here! What a joke, if there’s anyone who should be allowed some monetary compensation, it’s the black cabbies who after sweating it out for 2-3 years (3 years now) have the mini cabs to contend with. Over and out and leave it on the left Park Lane Sir!!

Barcelona apartments

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