A NEW report has shone a light on the deplorable state of the Costa del Sol’s taxi services, with an inadequate supply of vehicles costing the region hundreds of millions of euros every year.
The major study, led by economists from Pablo de Olavide University, has revealed that Marbella is the worst place in Spain to hail a cab, with a shocking 67.2 per cent of requests going unanswered.
That includes both traditional taxis and modern ride-hailing services such as Uber, Bolt and Cabify.
The report, titled ‘The Price of Scarcity: Ride-hailing services, Taxis and Competition in Urban Mobility in Andalucia,’ was written in collaboration with the Sevilla Business Confederation.
Researchers analysed 1,219 consecutive days of operational data, spanning the period from January 2023 to May 2026.
The dataset included around 10 million booking requests made through taxi and ride-hailing platforms.
Of those, approximately 6.5 million resulted in completed journeys, whereas 3.5 million requests were rejected because no vehicle was available.
The most alarming figures come from Marbella, where more than two-thirds of those attempting to get a taxi are left stranded.
Researchers blame this on a chronic shortage of vehicles, with just 347 taxi licences currently active for a town with more than 170,000 registered residents.
A short hop along the coast, things are not much better in Malaga, where 35.6 per cent of requests go unmet.
The situation is similar in Sevilla, which boasts a rejection rate of 34.5 per cent, although the statistics get significantly worse during the holidays or busy events.
As an example, the success rate for bookings during the first day of Sevilla’s Feria in 2024 stood at a meagre 29.6 per cent, leaving nearly seven in ten people without transport.
The report’s findings appear to tap into wider public discontent with the state of Andalucia’s taxi services.
A survey led by public affairs consultancy beBartlet found that only 36 per cent of Andalucians believe the current number of taxi licences in their city is sufficient – compared to 56 per cent in Madrid.
According to the report, the shortage of cabs has a significant economic cost.
Long waits outside the region’s airports alone cost an estimated €27 million per year, with researchers suggesting the figure could top a staggering €300 million annually when all tourist journeys across Andalucia are taken into account.
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Did someone actually get tasked and paid for this report? An exercise in persuit of the bleeding obvious