In another display of vigilantism, Taxi drivers in Puerto Vallarta blocked four tourist buses at the Krystal Hotel for 40-minutes Monday morning before 9 AM, accusing the buses of not having proper permits to pick up or drop off 160 students staying at the hotel on a volunteer relief mission.
The tour providers for the services arranged for the students was PV Tours, outsourced by the Olympus Travel Agency to offer tour services to the student.
In agreements between tour companies and taxi unions, tour companies must have pre-contracted services before entering hotel properties, the agreement that taxi drivers claimed the tour company was violating this morning. In the end, the tour company provided sufficient evidence to prove they were operating within the transportation agreement and they were allowed to proceed with their operations.
The hijacking of the tour buses by the taxi union never involved local authorities.
Vallarta Daily News caught up with some tourists along the Malecón this morning and asked what their experience with taxi drivers have been like in Puerto Vallarta.
“I have been visiting Puerto Vallarta every fall for six years. On my first visit I saw three taxi drivers pull another driver out of his car and beat him up on Olas Altas because apparently he picked up a passenger out of his zone,” said Joseph Delaney. “I decided then that taking a taxi in Puerto Vallarta probably wasn’t very safe,” he added.
Andrea Vernon said, “I get the impression that they are organized crime. They charge whatever they want and you will get your kneecaps broke if you cross them. It looks like even the government is scared of them.”
The conflict between taxi unions and other transportation service providers boil over into the public streets often. Law enforcement and government agencies largely ignore the situations and request that service providers work out their squabbles among themselves.
In the end, taxi drivers and tour services suffer as tourists begin to feel less comfortable using the transportation services in Puerto Vallarta. The innocent victims are the business owners that depend on sales generated by tourists who can move freely throughout the city’s shopping zones while having confidence in the local transportation.
“The problem is like a cancer right now, if the government doctors and authorities don’t end the infection soon, the patient will die. Meaning tourism,” local tourist Andy Maier tells Vallarta Daily.
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The Yellow Scourge.
I’m going to reduce my taxi use to a minumum now. I find this extremely offensive.
Is about time this goverment (county) do something about this matter, this drivers are like a bad disease, they drive like idiots, charge what they want, have no good immage, are rude and for such a beautiful touristic city they dont even speak english (most of them) not to mention most of this vehicles are in terrible conditions!! Who controls this?? Who supervise them?? And who and what are the authorities gonna do about what happened here????????
Must have been taught by the asshole cabbies in Vegas!
bad news
nothing stronger than the unions here.
no wonder we have less tourists…………..
the organized mafia…
ause they belong to the biggest sindicate in Mexico CNOP owned and contrlled by thr PRI …
they are a plague..don´t worry thise 160 did it…teey are after the tourist only.
The taxi drivers are a selfish, self centered, entitled bunch of assholes who think nobody but them deserves to make a living and the traffic laws are for other people. I take every opportunity to block them, stop them, slow them down or just make their lives miserable. They’ve earned it.
My son is a surf guide and the taxi mafia has called the police to stop him after he picked up clients. They have an actual law stating only they can take people from Hotels. Try picking up your mother and see what happens
I find that really hard to believe. Maybe they used to have such a law, but I doubt it now. I’ve been picking friends and family up and dropping off at hotels for years with no problems. They just don’t want the tour operators cutting into their business, which is bullshit.
I do the same in Vegas where we live!
Blackmail!
I would hope Uber would come to PV that would be awesome!!!!!
It does not make a lot of sense. Why does the taxi union have the ability to control who does business on the private properties of hotels? Shouldn’t that be the hotel’s choice as a private business? If hotels were smart they would go against the taxi union, hotels are more important and bring more revenue to the city so they will win. Money is power here, we get that. Then hotels can start advertising that tour buses come to their hotel every morning to take guests on an adventure, that is an amenity that will bring them more business and more $$$ than letting the taxi drivers control their parking lots, but there isn’t a lot of business-minded people in the local tourism industry, just greedy ones.
Well, this isn’t anything new. It’s been a problem for over ten years and this actually happens on a regular basis, it just isn’t something that has made it into the local English press.
Unions are controlled by mafia just like in the 70s in the USA. Now cartels.
Agree. I remember quite a few back that they even went out to the bridge over the Meca to Naygarit and blocked the Federal Highway and no action was taken against them.
It is a matter of the Union’s power and the political party they belong to….
Oh wow…sad! They should be more afraid that Lyft and uber might catch on soon in PV!!!
Just more justification for the negative US news media to have some “Red meat” to discourage tourism to PV and Mexico in general. These nitwits are shooting themselves in the foot and they are oblivious to it. They deserve what they get for being so damned greedy.
Typical Mexican lack of forethought.
Stupidity!