Richard Lord

Gov­ern­ment has moved a step clos­er to­wards le­gal­is­ing the op­er­a­tions of pri­vate hired taxi (PH) dri­vers.

The Min­istry of Works and Trans­port has cir­cu­lat­ed Draft Reg­u­la­tions for Pri­vate Hired Ve­hi­cles in T&T for pub­lic com­ment. The min­istry says it not­ed "with con­cern the pro­lif­er­a­tion of "PH" taxis on the na­tion's roads. The min­istry said that sit­u­a­tion "arose from the in­ad­e­qua­cies in the trans­porta­tion ser­vices pro­vid­ed by the Pub­lic Trans­port Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion (PTSC), maxi-taxis and hired mo­tor ve­hi­cles.

It added: "These ser­vices have proven to be in­ad­e­quate in sat­is­fy­ing the trans­porta­tion needs of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty." In sup­port of the need for reg­u­la­tion to au­tho­rise PH taxis to op­er­ate legal­ly in T&T, the min­istry said: "Many com­mu­ni­ties, es­pe­cial­ly those in rur­al ar­eas and some new res­i­den­tial (hous­ing) de­vel­op­ments, are ser­viced on­ly by a 'PH' taxi ser­vice." Af­ter "sev­er­al dis­cus­sions and con­sul­ta­tions" with taxi, maxi taxi and "PH" as­so­ci­a­tions – in­clud­ing the Aux­il­iary Trans­port As­so­ci­a­tion) – and oth­er stake­hold­ers, the min­istry said it "has de­cid­ed to give due con­sid­er­a­tion for (to) for­mu­lat­ing a reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work un­der which "PH" dri­vers can op­er­ate." The Works and Trans­port Min­istry said it was of the view that "the in­sti­tu­tion of a prop­er reg­u­la­to­ry regime will pro­tect mem­bers of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty from the dis­ad­van­tages posed by an un­reg­u­lat­ed PH ser­vice."

It added it would "en­sure that a le­git­i­mate means of pub­lic trans­porta­tion is avail­able to all com­mu­ni­ties." The Draft Reg­u­la­tions for Pri­vate Hired Ve­hi­cles in T&T says li­cences to op­er­ate PH taxis will be grant­ed on spec­i­fied con­di­tions.

The Draft Reg­u­la­tions says every "PH" li­cence grant­ed shall:

* Be signed by the Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er on­ly;

* re­late to not more than one pri­vate hire ve­hi­cle; and,

* re­main in force for such pe­ri­od not longer than one year as the Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty may spec­i­fy in the li­cence.

The reg­u­la­tions al­so pro­vides for spe­cial li­cence plates iden­ti­fy­ing that ve­hi­cle as a pri­vate hired ve­hi­cle in re­spect of which a ve­hi­cle li­cence has been grant­ed. The reg­u­la­tions pro­vide for a fine (undis­closed) and im­pris­on­ment (pe­ri­od undis­closed) to be im­posed on any li­cenced PH taxi dri­ve who is found guilty of con­tra­ven­ing the reg­u­la­tions. The dri­ver's per­mit and PH li­cence al­so would be re­voked, the reg­u­la­tions said.

Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er said re­cent­ly there was a need for PH dri­vers in T&T to op­er­ate legal­ly.