How does a taxi licence get bookings away from the rank? What the licence allows, fixed price versus meter, how jobs are assigned and how you get paid
From two places, and both are pre-booking. Urban trips within their own municipality are what a VTC cannot run in Castilla-La Mancha: they are only accepted with a taxi licence from that municipality and are charged at the ordinance fare. And intercity transfers starting in their municipality —Barajas, the high-speed station, hospitals—, with the time and price fixed, which is what the rank does not provide.
Written by Ridelta - Taxi y VTC · published on 15 September 2026 · reviewed on 27 October 2026
What does a taxi licence from a Toledo municipality allow?
Two different things that are best not mixed up. The municipal taxi licence, granted by the town hall under its ordinance, allows urban transport within the municipal boundary: pickup at the rank, by street hail or by booking, at the fare the town hall sets and on the meter. And the authorisation for intercity passenger transport in passenger cars, the one the Land Transport Act and its Regulation tie to that licence, allows services that leave the municipal boundary, on condition that they start in the licence's municipality except under agreements or joint service areas. A Toledo taxi may take a customer to Barajas or Atocha; what it may not do is go to Illescas to collect one who did not request the service from Toledo.
In practice, urban work holds its own from the rank and the radio circuit, and intercity work does not: nobody waits at the Zocodover rank for a customer bound for Barajas in the early hours to turn up. That customer books days ahead, compares and chooses whoever gives them a time and a price in writing. That is where a pre-booking platform brings something to a licence holder: it brings them the booking that would otherwise go to a Madrid VTC or a hire car, and it leaves in their municipality the booked urban trips a VTC cannot run. Neither replaces the rank; both are added to the shift they already work.
Why do urban trips in your town go to whoever holds the licence?
Because it is not a commercial preference, it is the rule. Since Royal Decree-Law 13/2018, a VTC authorisation covers intercity transport, and urban service belongs to the taxi unless the region expressly enables the VTC to provide it. Castilla-La Mancha has not done so, so a trip that starts and ends in Toledo, Illescas or Talavera needs a taxi licence from that municipality. The platform applies it in the code, not in a brochure: when a customer requests an internal trip, the calculator only accepts it if there is a licence covering it there, and if there is none it says so before confirming. For whoever holds the licence, that means those requests have nowhere else to go.
The fare for those services is the one in the municipal ordinance, in full and with its surcharges, because it is the only one that may be charged on a regulated urban trip: no discounts or platform prices are applied to an amount the town hall sets, and the system does not admit a custom price on an internal trip. What the platform adds is the advance booking, the customer's details, card payment if the customer chooses it and the record of the service; what it does not touch is the meter or the ordinance. In Toledo city, with its old town and its districts separated by the Tagus, and in the large towns of La Sagra, that booked urban work exists and today has hardly any channel.
Fixed price or meter on intercity transfers?
On intercity work the taxi fare is a maximum under the national rules that set it, so a price agreed in advance at or below it is a lawful price and is what the customer who books days ahead expects: to know what they will pay before getting in. The platform calculates that price with its route engine and the customer sees it before confirming; the taxi driver sees it in full —time, pickup, destination, passengers and amount— before accepting. The public references are on the route pages: Toledo to Barajas is 93 km from 129,93 €; Illescas to Atocha, 38 km; Talavera to Barajas, 140 km and about 101 min.
The licence holder chooses from their portal how they want to work intercity jobs: they declare their own tariff, which the platform applies to their services, or they adopt the house tariff, and that choice changes the commission withheld. It can be changed whenever they like. What never happens is someone cutting the price on the spot to grab a job: prices are set beforehand and the customer chooses among them with the time and the vehicle in front of them. The customer of a pre-booked intercity trip pays what was agreed and does not watch the meter; the taxi driver knows what they are paid before setting off, and the knowledge centre piece on the fixed price explains what goes into that calculation, the return included.
How are jobs assigned, and what does the taxi driver see before accepting?
The customer books on the website or in the app with pickup, destination, date and time; the job enters the zone's queue and is offered to the partners who can provide it: for an internal Toledo trip, only to Toledo licences; for one starting in Toledo and ending elsewhere, to Toledo licences and to the zone's partner VTCs. The taxi driver sees it in their app with all the details and the amount and accepts or declines it, with no penalty for declining and without the radio circuit or the rank knowing. The jobs offered most are airport, station and hospital runs: Toledo to Barajas, about 68 min on the road; Toledo to Atocha, 71 km; Sonseca to the University Hospital, 25 km.
Once the job is accepted, the app navigates to the pickup, tracks the trip states and generates the service documentation before departure. The rules are the same for every partner: the pickup time is the one the customer has paid for, the price is the agreed one with no on-board surcharges and, at Barajas, the courtesy waiting time from landing is published by the platform and seen by the customer before booking. If a taxi driver accepts and then cannot make it, they say so in the app and the job goes back into the queue; whoever misses a pickup without warning loses priority. A taxi association can join as a group and share out internally what reaches its municipality, which is the formula the associations page explains.
How is it invoiced, how are you paid, and what is not promised?
The customer pays by card when booking or in cash on board when the job allows it, so the taxi driver chases nobody. Card payments land in the licence holder's own Stripe Connect account, with the platform's commission already split out, and reach their bank within that account's period; cash is theirs from the first moment and is deducted in the next settlement. The taxi driver invoices the customer in their own name, because they are the one providing the transport, and receives from the platform the invoice for its commission with VAT, numbered and issued automatically. The commission is not quoted here: it is the one the platform publishes on its pages, different depending on whether an own tariff is declared or the house one adopted, and there is no joining fee and no monthly fee.
No volume is promised. What reaches a municipality depends on the real demand in that municipality and its time slot, and what the platform can show before signing is what has been requested there in recent months and what had to be turned down for lack of anyone to run it; if that number is small, it says it is small. Nor is there exclusivity or a minimum term: the taxi driver stays at their rank, with their radio circuit and their usual customers, and this is one more channel used when it fits the shift. The knowledge centre piece on VTC and taxi fleets explains what the administration asks of each and how operations are organised when both share the same area.
Frequently asked questions
Will you cut my urban fare?
No, and that is not a concession: inside your municipality the ordinance governs and nothing else may be charged. The system does not admit a custom price on an internal trip subject to a regulated fare.
Do I have to leave the rank or my radio circuit?
No. There is no exclusivity, no minimum term and no fee: in a month with no jobs, nothing is paid. You accept what fits the shift you already work and decline the rest with no penalty.
How many bookings will you pass me?
No number is promised. What is shown before signing is what there is: what has been requested in your town in recent months, what had to be turned down for lack of anyone to run it, and in which time slots. If that number is small, we say it is small.
Can I accept a job that starts in another municipality?
The intercity authorisation tied to the licence requires the job to start in the licence's municipality, except under an agreement or joint service area, and the platform only offers each licence the jobs that start within its boundary. A Consuegra taxi receives its own —to Toledo's high-speed station it is 61 km—, not those of Toledo city.
Who invoices the customer?
The taxi driver, in their own name, because they are the one providing the transport; the platform invoices the driver for its commission with VAT, numbered and issued automatically. Both arrive with the settlement, job by job, which is what the accountant needs.
Sources
- BOE · Ley 16/1987, de Ordenación de los Transportes Terrestres (LOTT): transporte de viajeros en vehículos de turismo (consulted on 27 October 2026)
- BOE · Real Decreto 1211/1990, Reglamento de la LOTT (ROTT): autorizaciones de transporte interurbano en taxi y su vinculación a la licencia municipal (consulted on 27 October 2026)
- Ministerio de Transportes · transporte terrestre: servicios al transportista (taxi interurbano y VTC) (consulted on 27 October 2026)
- Ayuntamiento de Toledo · ordenanza y tarifas del servicio de auto-taxi (consulted on 27 October 2026)
How we write, where the figures come from and how we correct an error: editorial policy.
A summary of how work is divided between taxis and private hire in Castilla-La Mancha and of the published conditions, not legal advice or a contract. The scope of urban service and the fares depend on regional rules and on each town's ordinance: confirm them with your town hall and the competent regional department. The commission is the one published at the time of signing and none of this promises a volume of jobs.