On Friday, taxi driver representatives in Mallorca will meet to discuss Wednesday's announcement of a start to the Uber service in four municipalities - Andratx, Calvia, Llucmajor, Palma.
The taxi drivers believe that this service is illegal as it does not have the necessary licence to operate in the municipalities. It will also be in breach of existing regional regulations if there is not, at minimum, a thirty-minute advance booking.
Although the Balearic government is currently operating in an acting capacity since the election, the taxis argue that the mobility ministry should take measures. The ministry says that its inspection service has been notified.
Biel Moragues of one of the taxi associations says that some drivers are angry and are calling for protests that would "paralyse the islands' airports". However, he insists that there won't be any action of this type. "We will not succumb to provocation and we will not leave our customers in their hands."
Moragues is of the view that the sudden arrival of Uber is as a consequence of the election, a charge denied by Felipe Fernández Aramburu, the CEO for Uber in Spain and Portugal. He says that the timing is purely a coincidence. "A launch such as this cannot be improvised in a few days. We have been working for months to start our services on the island."
He refutes the taxi drivers' claim regarding illegality. "The activity of hiring vehicles with a driver in the Balearics does not require an urban licence (from a municipality), as the authorisation granted by island councils is sufficient."
Fernández Aramburu says that Uber in the Balearics have 52 vehicles at present, suggesting that they have obtained 52 VTC licences. The number is low, but more than 200 other licences could well be obtained if the Constitutional Court in Madrid rules against the Balearic government's thirty-minute rule on the grounds that it infringes the constitutional right to free enterprise.