Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

Maxi taxi dri­vers protest­ed out­side the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port (MOWT) head of­fice yes­ter­day to high­light an on­go­ing next of kin is­sue faced by the dri­vers.

“The next of kin pol­i­cy ... we see­ing that they try­ing to roll back but we want it in a pol­i­cy,” for­mer vice pres­i­dent of the Route Two Maxi Taxi Dri­vers As­so­ci­a­tion Bren­ton Knights said.

Just af­ter 11 am, maxi taxi dri­vers used their ve­hi­cles to cir­cle around the min­istry’s head of­fice through Lon­don Street, on­to Wright­son Road, and back on­to Sackville and Rich­mond Streets.

The dri­vers blew their horns, played the voice of a wid­ow plead­ing for help on a car with a PA sys­tem and at one point, one of the dri­vers lay in the road­way.

They want a prop­er next of kin pol­i­cy im­ple­ment­ed. The pol­i­cy will al­low all the au­tho­ri­sa­tions giv­en to a maxi taxi dri­ver to be passed on to the next rel­a­tive/kin, in the event of sick­ness or death, to al­low the maxi taxi to con­tin­ue to op­er­ate and the busi­ness to go on.

Knights said the process fluc­tu­ates and they want prop­er guide­lines for the process. He point­ed to one of his for­mer col­leagues (Clarence Tay­lor) who is ail­ing and strug­gling to go to the min­istry to re­new his Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route pass.

“He’s 83 years old ... He wants to get his pass trans­ferred to his next of kin be­cause of med­ical rea­sons, he doh want to be go­ing through to come by the min­istry to re­new a pass,” Knights said.

As­so­ci­a­tion sec­re­tary Ver­nell Carter said there were many mem­bers and their rel­a­tives fac­ing the same is­sue, in­clud­ing some who died dur­ing the process.

“Just af­ter the re­new­al process end­ed he died, he passed away and that was in June (2023). Since then to now his pass has nev­er been re­newed,” he ex­plained.

Carter said the wid­ow tried to go through the process on her own but was un­suc­cess­ful.
He asked how many more peo­ple had to die be­fore prop­er guide­lines were im­ple­ment­ed.

Knights added that some ve­hi­cles were re­pos­sessed be­cause the trans­fer of own­er­ship could not be made and the next of kin was un­able to make mon­ey from the maxi to pay the in­stal­ment.

“They lost that in­vest­ment, them and they chil­dren have to fend for them­selves,” he said.

He vowed con­tin­ued protests un­til the mat­ter is re­solved.

“It reach a stage that we had enough of talk...this year is go­ing to be a long hot drawn out sum­mer where this is­sue is con­cerned,” he added.

Knights said they need to get the as­sur­ance from the min­istry in writ­ing be­fore they move on.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port for a re­sponse but was told the com­mu­ni­ca­tions de­part­ment was draft­ing one. None was re­ceived up press time.