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Taxi Drivers to work Less Hours in Mallorca this Summer

Drivers vote in large numbers to work smaller shifts

featured in News & reviews Author Ellie Mahoney, Mallorca Editor Updated

In a vote in Palma yesterday, taxi drivers moved to reduce their weekday hours during the summer season.

The referendum was held after drivers had complained about their peak season working hours. Turnout was exceptionally high, and saw 1,016 of the 1,240 drivers on the Island voting.

There is expected to be a record numbers of visitors coming to Mallorca this summer, but these changes will not be detrimental effect to holiday makers, as Jose from Majorca Taxis explains:

"In the City of Palma the winters have been very bad lately, so it's in the summer that drivers work more [and earn their money]. Some taxis have one driver and some two or more. For the single driver taxis in summer, they often don't sleep much or eat regularly. Taxis with 2 drivers tend to each work 24 hours then pass on the car to the next driver for another 24 hour shift.

We have agreed this vote to limit the number of hours per car, not per driver, as it's the only way the workload can be spread across all the cars. With the new system only 1,000 taxis would be in operation at any one time, which will be sufficient to meet all the passengers' needs. This means the drivers can be more productive and not have to make so many long journeys of many hours."