A pending revolution in island mobility
Tenerife is sitting on a potential transportation revolution, with a staggering 3,200 licenses for chauffeured vehicles (VTC) pending approval. Currently, a mere 117 vehicles operate with the proper authorization, with the majority concentrated in the island’s southern tourist hotspots. A recent change in regulations has empowered the island’s governing council, the Cabildo, to make key decisions on this rapidly expanding market. For context, a similar situation is unfolding on Gran Canaria, where 4,400 applications have been submitted for just a few hundred available spots.
Establishing a new regulatory framework
Eulalia García, the island’s Councillor for Mobility, explains the current process: “The new law establishes that we must set indicators and objective criteria to regulate authorizations for this type of vehicle, and that is what we are working on.” For now, the council is “waiting for the Canary Islands Government to develop the studies on which indicators to analyze.” García also notes that her department is “examining data from the island and from specific municipalities to establish objective parameters for regulating the authorizations.”
The current players and Uber’s island impact
Presently, only two VTC companies operate in Tenerife: Sixt Ride, which is headquartered in Valencia, and Moove Cars, which is a supply partner for Uber. The other multinational giant in the sector, Cabify, has not yet entered the island’s market, but it is highly probable that it is behind some of the 3,000+ license applications. Uber has taken stock of its two years on the island, where it has been operating since August 2023 in the municipalities of Arona, Adeje, Granadilla de Abona, and Guía de Isora—a zone that includes Tenerife South Airport. A company spokesperson stated that “for competitive reasons, we cannot reveal data on the number of licenses we work with,” clarifying that “we do not own any licenses in Spain; we work with fleets that request them. We are a technology intermediary.”
International appeal and a new phenomenon: the tuk-tuks
Felipe Fernández Aramburu, General Manager of Uber for Spain and Portugal, emphasized that “we arrived in Tenerife two years ago with the goal of helping to improve transportation on the island and we haven’t stopped growing.” He revealed that “in the last year alone, over one and a half million people opened the app on the island to request a ride.” A striking 77% of Uber journeys in Tenerife are booked by international users, primarily from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. Beyond traditional chauffeur services, another parallel phenomenon has recently appeared on the streets of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: tuk-tuks. These six-seater auto-rickshaws, common across Southeast Asia, have sparked a professional dispute. The taxi association, La Gremial, has requested an official report on this “professional intrusion” for the next meeting of the Taxi Board.
Legal gray area and local enforcement
Evelyn Alonso, the Councillor for Security, confirmed that “no Canary Islands administration has authorized the use of these vehicles as VTC.” She acknowledged that “they have been seen with blue license plates, which identify them as public service vehicles, and it’s possible they are operating under national regulations.” Alonso was clear that “they can circulate because they are approved by the national traffic authority (DGT), but they cannot pick up or transport clients,” stressing that “this type of transport has an obvious tourist purpose.” She insisted that “Local Police will issue the corresponding fines.” The councillor also recalled that in November 2024, a “private request” was made to occupy public space for parking one of these vehicles on Milicias de Garachico street, which was “denied due to a lack of proper permit.”
Taxi industry concerns and calls for clarity
These vehicles have been operating in Adeje and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, though in places like Maspalomas they vanished overnight. La Gremial del Taxi alleges that the tuk-tuks are stored in a garage awaiting the mandatory permit and are exploiting a regulatory “vacuum to sneak in.” Miguel Ojeda of Élite Taxi views them as “direct competition; they are not regulated and can do whatever they want.” Regulation is one of the sector’s biggest demands: “We have been asking the councillor for two years to regulate all types of vehicles,” he points out, insisting that “more and more are circulating around the island and Santa Cruz, and we don’t know under what permit or from which administration.” Ojeda also senses “a certain obscurity and misinformation regarding VTCs,” though he admits “they are not the main problem.” He focuses instead on rental vehicles “that compete with public service and clog the roads.” Regarding the enforcement of the mandated ratio of one VTC for every 30 taxis, he notes that “it is complied with in terms of numbers and permits, although we suspect there might be some illegal ones. If that proportion is maintained, we can coexist, but if it is exceeded, everything would become much more complicated.”
