Unlicensed drivers operating in Orihuela Costa due to taxi shortage

The shortage of taxis in Orihuela Costa has led to an increase in unlicensed passenger transport services at high-demand locations such as the Zenia Boulevard shopping centre. This situation, long denounced by the taxi industry, reached a particularly serious point on Monday when a private driver was caught offering rides to people waiting at the taxi rank.

The incident occurred around noon. A taxi driver noticed a man approaching a line of passengers, offering rides, and he picked up several people. The taxi drivers alerted the local police, who arrived at the scene and stopped him while he was offering these services.

Upon checking his information, officers discovered he lacked the authorisation to provide that service. According to the Orihuela City Council, the man was only sanctioned administratively for this infraction. However, taxi drivers’ sources indicate that two patrol cars arrived at the scene and that the driver was taken into custody, allegedly for violating a restraining order against his partner, who was in the same car. The Local Police have no record of this latter claim.

The incident has heightened concerns within the sector about unlicensed operators in passenger transport. Taxi drivers assert that this is not an isolated case. In areas with long waits, especially in La Zenia and other parts of Orihuela Costa, the practice occurs repeatedly. Private drivers approach the queues, offer rides, and agree on a price with the passengers.

The problem worsens at night. Demand is higher at those hours; many customers are foreign tourists who have been waiting for a while, and some are leaving entertainment venues. This combination makes it easier for them to accept unauthorised rides to get back to their accommodations without waiting any longer at a bus stop.

The sector maintains that queues are frequent during the summer. At Zenia Boulevard, one of the largest shopping centres in the Valencian Community, there may be a wait mid-morning, but the problem becomes more noticeable in the afternoon, especially after four o’clock. Reports are also being received from users in Cabo Roig, where complaints about a lack of available taxis are common.

This situation coexists with the possibility of ride-hailing services operating in the Valencian Community since the order approved on June 1st. However, this activity differs significantly from taxis: the service must be booked in advance, usually through an app, and does not allow passengers to be picked up directly at a taxi stand or solicit passengers on the street. For now, taxi drivers do not believe this will pose a problem given the high demand for services concentrated in Orihuela Costa.

The taxi shortage in Orihuela Costa persists while the municipal tender to expand licences remains unresolved. The process was launched last November, following a court ruling that compelled the City Council to issue at least one new licence. The underlying problem lies in the size of the fleet. Orihuela has 42 taxi licences, a number the sector considers insufficient to cover such a large and spread-out municipality, and especially to handle the tourist demand in Orihuela Costa. In practice, around 22 or 23 taxis typically operate on the coast, while Torrevieja already has around 90 licences and has completed two rounds of tenders this term. This difference explains part of the gridlock in areas like Zenia Boulevard, Cabo Roig, and La Zenia, where queues form daily in the summer, creating an environment for illegal transportation services. But Orihuela Costa isn’t the only area demanding more licences. In the city of Orihuela, fleet activity has increased considerably with the launch of the intermodal station and high-speed train services.

The application process has even reached the point of including a list of accepted and rejected applicants—and the ensuing controversy, since initially all candidates failed the street map test only to be later approved—but its processing has been delayed. Taxi drivers are only certain that a procedure that began in November to grant eight more licences has stalled, and they question why the process wasn’t finalised before summer, when pressure on the service skyrockets. They consider the current supply insufficient to meet the demand on the Orihuela Costa, and maintain that the administrative gridlock is leaving a recurring problem unresolved.

Sources within the governing team confirmed that there is a problem with the bidding process, which they say will be rectified without having to repeat the entire procedure. According to these same sources, the issue stems from an error in the evaluation criteria outlined in the competition rules. The City Council maintains that the rules governing an ongoing competition and the scoring of bids can be modified while the process is underway without requiring a complete restart.

The group also points out that Torrevieja collaborated in previous campaigns to alleviate the taxi shortage in Orihuela Costa, but that agreement was not renewed. According to the sector, the reason was that Torrevieja taxis could not neglect their own high demand to repeatedly cover the deficit in another municipality.