The GTA have issued a statement highlighting their concerns regarding the Chamber of Commerce’s recent comments.

Below follows a statement from the GTA:

For the past 18 months, the GTA has been working closely with the Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar to better the service through legislation changes and joint initiatives to better the Taxi Service for both residents and visitors alike. 

For the 1st time a new city service all year round was introduced starting this 1st of April , GPS monitoring system, new taxi regulations for airport and the new taxi app, which by the way is not funded by the GOG, it's paid by all main drivers and licence holders and is currently fully functional and has been used to book a taxi over 1000 times.

The new Airport service regulations are welcomed, not because the GTA is now legally obliged, but because HMGoG also changed the law to allow private hire vehicles to also pick up at the airport. This has helped us ensure we have the vehicles to provide the service both residents and visitors expect and deserve.

 We provide daily services for school runs for children with special needs, crew members who work within the bunkering sector, a shuttle service for cruise liner passengers to and from Main Street and also ensure extra vehicles are available during holiday seasons too. 

Another amendment to the law was the facility to have 2 cars on one licence. This allows each licence to provide a taxi service for longer. The law only allows for one car to be operational at any given time, but if one car works from 8am to 6pm, the second car can work from 6pm till late. Additionally, this second car can only provide a taxi service and not offer any sort of tours. This was another request we made to the Government to allow us to provide a better taxi service which has been fulfilled. We need more drivers, with many  just  waiting for their police vetting.

With all the above in place and our continued commitment to further improve, since 1st of April complaints are down substantially and the above mentioned improvements have played a big part in achieving this. 

The public and tourists alike should bear in mind that, as with any industry, there are high and low seasons. What is not always understood is the financial impact of low seasons, including diverted flights and cancelled cruise liners due to the weather. 

The GTA is the Gibraltar taxi service(GTS) Not just for tourism, and not just to make a profit, but waiting for  a service happens at every department, we will continue to make changes and necessary regulations to improve our services as it's the only way forward.

The GTA recognises that it plays a big part in Gibraltar PLC, not just in the tourism sector, but in the business one too and will do all it can to make Gibraltar the most desirable place to visit and do business in. It encourages all parties including the Chamber of Commence to work with it to achieve this and ensure that all parties can prosper from the many opportunities available. 

The Chamber should concentrate more on how other tour operators do business that greatly affect the commerce with their shuttle buses that take away key tourists from frontier and cruise terminal, most of which never get to see Main Street area.

The Chamber should also look into the unfair competition that's exists, taxi tours and tour buses are obliged to buy nature reserve tickets for its customers to access all within the nature reserve, meanwhile  others just pay a royalty, a tenth of the Nature Reserve ticket(NRT) where their customers have free access to the Barbary Macaques. 

Complaints often come in from cruise passengers and frontier tourists that most shops are closed on Sundays and public holidays.

The Chamber of Commence should know better as taxi drivers receive many complaints from our passengers on issues which relate to them and their members,  and have their view on what changes are needed within Gibraltar’s commercial sector. The difference is that the GTA is actively working on and demonstrating the improvements.