The organization of taxi industry in the municipality of the willowwhere there are eleven active licences, has divided the sector into two groups: one that is committed to the continuity of the Auriga fleet organization system who defends the northern town hall and another, made up of at least three licences, which rejects the current organization of those who are no longer in that system, considering that the assignment of turns and stops supposes a «comparative tort which severely harms our economy and job performance.”
The group of taxi drivers unhappy with this system, advised by the collective Elite Taxi Tenerifemaintains that in 2021 a meeting of the El Sauzal Taxi Association with the Municipal Council in which it was agreed to “eliminate the current fleet control system through a station because, among other reasons, it failed to comply with the Data Protection Actand implant Charioteer. In a subsequent meeting, it was agreed by majority that if any license did not want to continue in the Auriga system, they could request the withdrawal and work freely at any stop.
«In December 2022, we requested the withdrawal of three licenses, alleging, among other reasons, that the monthly cost of the system, of about 65 euros, could not be assumed, due, among other reasons, to the number of services that are carried out monthly, between 20 and 30. Here begins our nightmare because, as of February 2023, the City Council gives us, through the Local Police and on a monthly basis, a decree with mandatory turns and restriction of access to stops. This contradicts what was agreed at the association meeting, approved by a majority of the owners. These measures are a comparative grievance with respect to the other licenses, and they have been created with the clear objective of seriously harming our economy and the performance of our work, “these affected taxi drivers maintain.
This group points out that “even We have submitted a proposal for another system that is operational in other municipalities, and they simply answer us that it does not comply, without further information or detail. A clear example is that the stops do not have telephones, and of the four stops that exist, only one has the possibility of services on foot and, precisely, that is the stop in which they have put the most effort to restrict our access, even in forbidding our access by decree.”
The councilor responsible for the Transport area, Adasat Goya (CC)responds that «the implementation of a shift rotation system for all the stops had been agreed upon and agreed with the sector to guarantee that the service reaches the entire municipality, which has been going on for a long time, and the stations were also replaced to comply with the law, which is the Auriga fleet control system, which offers more guarantees to users and allows a faster and more efficient service due to the geolocation of vehicles».
According to Goya, “The Sauzalero City Council covered 100% of the investment in the new system and since then practically 50% of that fee of 65 euros per month ». The councilor affirms that the problem coincided with the beginning of the neighborhood complaints regarding the fact that the taxis did not appear at certain hours and when we began to investigate what is happening, some licenses tell us that the system is not viable.
“Regardless of what the taxi drivers agree, they must notify the City Council, which is the one who must authorize the changes in this municipal service”warns Goya, who accuses the three licenses that oppose the system of “working less time than the others and systematically rejecting some services.”
“They unilaterally decided to leave Auriga and proposed to work freely through the stops, a system that did not exist and that is how we have proposed it,” Goya emphasizes. Since then we have maintained the system with those who are in Auriga and with those who are not, and from the City Council We organize a rotation by shifts and stops that guarantees work in equality and equity throughout the municipalityalso in the hours when there are fewer taxis ».
The Consistory asks taxi drivers who are dissatisfied with the Auriga system that “propose an alternative that guarantees service throughout the municipality and access to information by the Town Hall of El Sauzal to be able to verify that things are being done well in the service”.
The mayor of Sauzalero, Mariano Perez (CC)stresses that the majority of the sector is satisfied with the current system and attributes these complaints to a mistaken minority: “Of the eleven taxi drivers in the municipality, nine are with the same system and working normally, and only three want to do it differently. This is like when there is a military parade and someone thinks that their son is the only one who has the right step.”.
