Antonio Morales assures that this new collaboration with the taxi drivers' group "provides the sector with a pioneering security system in Spain, which guarantees the safety of users and drivers."
The Cabildo de Gran Canaria has become the first public administration in Spain to allocate a budget to cover the installation of video surveillance systems in the island's taxi vehicles, with the aim of guaranteeing the safety of both drivers and passengers. An initiative promoted by the Ministry of Sustainable Mobility, headed by Teodoro Sosa, which responds to a historic demand from the sector and to which, in 2024, 427.050 euros were allocated and which, in 2025, has another 500.000.
This was stated on Thursday by the President of the Government of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, at the presentation of the lines of collaboration that the Cabildo maintains with the taxi sector and which, in recent years, have amounted to more than three million euros through different aids. Specifically, he mentioned the subsidy of 300.000 euros per year, for ordinary expenses of the group, in addition to a second biannual one, to modernize the fleet with the acquisition of new vehicles, mostly electric and hybrid, in order to promote sustainability and the reduction of polluting emissions in the sector.
“And now we have launched this new collaboration to ensure the safety of users and drivers,” he stressed. “A unique system in Spain, with an internal and external surveillance camera, connected to local police forces, for which we are going to sign an agreement with each of the municipalities, or with other security spaces, so that we can respond immediately to any incident or so that it is recorded if any anomaly occurs,” he explained.
For his part, Councillor Teodoro Sosa also stressed the importance of this measure, “which is a pioneer in Spain, because, according to the data we have, in other places this type of camera has not been installed in each and every taxi as is done on the Island, so that, in the next year and a half, almost 2.700 vehicles will be able to have this video surveillance camera on their dashboard, which will give peace of mind and security to the traveller and also to the driver,” he declared. “But, above all, it will give the opportunity to be constantly connected to local police and to have an anti-panic button. In short, this pioneering idea will allow, with the Data Protection Law, everyone to feel safe.”
At this point, the councillor stated that “the Cabildo de Gran Canaria takes care of the taxi sector” and added that “we have been adopting important measures since 2021, such as the implementation of the so-called 'sticker', which has allowed, during these years, many taxi drivers to carry an advertisement for the Cabildo, thus contributing around 600 euros annually to these taxi licenses, in addition to helping to improve the fleet, with the incorporation of more than 120 hybrid vehicles in the last year, and the installation of the video surveillance cameras that we are presenting today”.
And in the face of this new advance in the taxi sector with the help of the island Government, Cosme Damián Mesa, president of the Cooperative of Taxi Producers of Las Palmas, stated that “it seems that the Cabildo is the only institution that supports us, because we have no communication with other administrations and there is a standstill in the sector, with the thousand problems that we have and that they blame on us. But if there are no cars it is because of insecurity”, he stated. Therefore, he thanked the Corporation for the help to install this new equipment, “which will facilitate our work, because many colleagues do not go to work, since many times we do not do it, because it is not worth it to us”, he lamented, to finish highlighting that, “with the subsidies from the Cabildo, before the end of this year, we will be able to have the cameras installed in 2.000 cars”.
Commitment to public service, public transport and sustainable mobility
President Morales, in his speech at the event, made it very clear that this set of actions is yet another example of the fact that “the commitment to public and guided transport is an objective of this Government, which has been dedicated for a decade to creating an ecosystem in which energy, infrastructure and public services allow for a transport network that meets the demands of the population and economic activities, that is non-polluting and can be powered by renewable energy, that facilitates territorial and social cohesion, that guarantees the quality and safety of transport for the community and that does not depend on foreign interests to ensure its continuity.”
And within this strategy, he stressed that “it is essential that the taxi drivers of Gran Canaria can adapt their offer to the needs of the new user profiles. For this reason, the Cabildo has launched these lines of support for the taxi sector”, since “the transformation of the mobility model is absolutely essential for the improvement of the quality of life and the economic development of the people of Gran Canaria”, he stressed.
Because, in his opinion, “the modal system, for decades, has been subject to the growing demand for mobility of a vehicle fleet that has grown exponentially and, in 60 years, we have gone from nothing to having almost 750.000 vehicles circulating on the Island, of which 16,6% are rental vehicles, that is, we have 12.500 'rent a car' vehicles”, he described. A scenario to which, as he noted, is added the fact that Gran Canaria, as an Island, maintains a radical difference with respect to the continent, “given that the vehicles do not have more surface area than the 1.560 square kilometres of its territory, so it supports an average of 464 vehicles per square kilometre, while the average in the Archipelago is 256”.
He also highlighted that, within the island's fleet, public service vehicles (buses and taxis) represent a minimal percentage, but of vital importance to redirect the model towards sustainability and the socialisation of transport. “Here we have to highlight that we have less than 3.000 buses and around 2.697 taxis, with notable data such as the fact that the capital has the highest ratio of taxis of the main cities in Spain, registering 4,3 vehicles per 1.000 inhabitants, when the national average is 2,9,” he added. “Our commitment to public service, public transport and sustainable mobility is proven,” he concluded.
