scampicat

Our nearest airport (Almeria) is 1.5 hours away; however it doesn't have flights from Birmingham in the winter so people have to go to Malaga which is over three hours away. (Granada is two hours away but has even less UK flights than Almeria).

We only ever take friends and family and sometimes they tip us for our trouble.Why this should be anyone else's business I have no idea.

mrs-mop

I expect a lot of the time these "taxis" are people looking after villas for rentals and a real taxi driver and his passengers wouldnt have a clue where the destination is, compounded by the fact the passengers won´t speak much Spanish and you can´t even provide a post code for a satnav system. Does anyone know anyone that has been fined? My husband goes to the airport nearly every day for cigarettes and daily newspapers for the local shop! Maybe they have to see passengers getting in or out or some money changing hands?

Econ

It doesn't really matter if the passengers don't speak the lingo or don't know where the destination would be, the law does not permit people to carry paying passengers unless licensed to do so.
I have heard of some who have been pulled at Malaga, not sure what happened to them but it wasn't recently. I myself go the the airport (Malaga) around 10 to 15 times every year to drop off or pick up family apart from my own flights and have not been questioned, mind you when I pick up people I know or family... there are kisses, smiles and big handshakes... I would image it not too difficult to distinguish between someone dropping off family, friends and/or others running a taxi service although I can understand if anyone innocent says they have been pounced on, sadly as others have mentioned you are generally presumed guilty in Spain but that is how it works here. If you are picking up or dropping off family or friends I would not let it worry you nor would I worry about going to the airport for fags.

mikelincs

If you are stood there with a big notice that says JOHN SMITH etc, then it's a bit of a give away..

fionamw

Doh! I've never put brain in gear wondering if all those signs are anything other than tour rep type people.....
re numberplate recognition, that's used at Malaga airport car parks already anyway - I wonder if that's going to come into play ref the taxi thing in due course? In which case I and no doubt plenty of other innocents will be scuppered.....
(when it reaches AGP, of course)!

jdr

Most are timeshare con artists. ;-(
Numberplates have been on the tickets as long as I can remember, I lost my ticket once and all he needed was my number and he printed me out another ticket, no extra charge.

mikelincs

lots of the pay car parks print your reg number on the ticket, and the camera at the exit validates that you number is the same as the one on the ticket, so it's not an unusual thing.

fionamw

Possibly not, but it was new to me & in my previous incarnation in various places in the UK I'd not come across it....

mikelincs

No, as far as I remember there wasn't such a thing in the UK when I last drove there, but in some car parks with pay and display you did have to put the numer part of your reg in before it gave a ticket.