Have you tried catching a cab in Palma over the past few weeks? It is virtually impossible.
If you don’t book, you’re in for a long wait and the council has decided not to increase working hours for taxi-drivers, claiming that the shortage is only at peak periods. Rubbish.
The shortage is every day and all day, especially when the cruise ships are in town. The port is where all the cabbies are, hoping for a lucrative job while residents in Palma and business people are stranded at empty taxi ranks for ages hoping that they’ll get to their meeting on time.
Yes, I can see the attraction of waiting for hours at the airport or the port hoping for a nice little number to Alcudia or Capdepera, but it is a gamble. The hungry cabbie may just get a quick journey to the centre of Palma - all that waiting for nothing.
A taxi-driver explained to me the other day that while on paper there are plenty of taxis, at any one time nearly 50 per cent are not on duty.
Ok, don’t extend working hours, just reduce the number of days cabbies have off during the peak season. Moreover, I think Palma’s cabbies need to take a leaf out of their counterparts in London.
I was late for a very important meeting the other day because the taxi driver didn’t know where our offices are and I am sick and tired of being asked which route I want to take: the most direct one obviously.