The Deputy Mayor for Mobility at Palma City Council, Toni Deudero, has signed a decree authorising the granting of a total of 210 temporary municipal taxi licences, which will be valid from 1 May to 31 October. Of these licences, 200 will be ordinary licences and 10 will be for taxis adapted for people with reduced mobility, the council said in a statement.
Holders applying for these licences must meet a series of requirements. The authorisation to drive will be personal and non-transferable and may not be transferred or leased under any circumstances. In addition, the provision of services with these temporary licences will be limited exclusively to the municipalities of Palma and Marratxí.
Under no circumstances may services be provided within the port or airport, or in the areas of Can Pastilla and Playa de Palma, between Calle Déntol and the boundary with the municipality of Llucmajor.
The Mobility Department has pointed out that since the beginning of the current legislative term, a total of 460 people have passed the courses required to work as taxi drivers. During this period, four calls for applications have been made: in the first, 71 people passed; in the second, held in February 2024, 150 people passed; in the third, also in 2024, 116 people passed; and in the fourth, held in January 2025, the number of people who passed rose to 123.
Last summer, Biel Moragues, president of one of Mallorca’s taxi driver associations, recognised that public transport and taxis cannot cope in high season. The transport model, he says, must be seriously reconsidered. “There cannot be more private cars. The solution is not more Uber or more taxis as we will just have more traffic jams.”
For Palma he believes there has to be greater commitment to public transport - not just buses but also either the planned tram system or an extension to the metro. “Public transport cannot meet the demand we have, just as the road network, water consumption and housing cannot. In the end, everything is out of control. We lack taxi and bus drivers. We are faced with a serious problem with the model. There are so many components that are failing.”
And into the mix comes the number of tourists. Moragues says that no one has a real idea as to the number there are in Palma, especially because of the proliferation of rentals (illegal ones). “For instance, we get calls from tourists on C. Joan Alcover. There are no hotels there. We taxi drivers know full well about these lets in Palma. And with this tourism model we cannot regulate traffic.”