I will love this to be my excuse to not go to work on Monday. I'm sorry, the taxis wouldn't let us leave the country.
It seems to be better today. Yesterday and last night there were many road blocks and crashes because of the taxi protests. The taxis have been blocking transfer vehicles in Puerto Morelos for about the last year as well. I read that 268 taxi licenses were revoked for participating in the road blocks, and many protesters were jailed. Good. We hope this does not affect anyone's vacation, but like you guys said...there are worse places to be stuck!
It's not just Mexico. Taxi companies in the US have strong political connections, some cities even have ordinances which state that the minimum courier fee for non-taxi private chauffers is $45 which eliminates a large portion of their short distance runs. To say that world governments (whether national, state, city, etc) are corrupt is an understatement. It's just most people don't realize it, or have a reason to care.
The transfer companies saw the business opportunity and took it. If taxi companies want the business, then they have to be competitive with prices and customer service. Throw in a Walmart stop, do the online taxi coupon, up front pricing, do something. I like the idea of getting into any taxi when I get there, and not have to find my transfer. But general experience shows that transfers are the way to go. Even though they are backed, their actions are disruptive to the tourist industry and the officials wouldn't want that to happen.
Actually it doesn't work that way - one company bid to be the only provider of walk up "taxi" service (actually just another transfer service) from the airport. This type of exclusive deal (ie lockout) also unfortunately happens in a number of other countries airports. Airports are a business just like any other and they make business decisions/deals that provide them the best revenue from other companies that provide services relate to airport activities. All regular taxis are forbidden from picking up any fares at the airport - they can bring fares to the airport but cannot pick up there or they will lose their license. I don't agree with their actions but can see what leads to their frustrations.
We have the exact same thing here...there is only one taxi company allowed to pick up at the airport, but any taxi company can drop off...it's just the way it works. D