Loose in the dark - Unlicensed, unregulated taxis carry out high-priced night service while authorities sleep

Economics is at the heart of the indiscipline and the chaotic operations of the public transport system across Jamaica.

The privately operated public transport system has had no fare increase since 2014, and the leaders of the various taxi associations and lobbies grudgingly admit there is very little likelihood of a fare increase this year, with an election in the offing.

They say the uneconomical fares and continuing rising costs of operating are crippling their businesses and proving to be the “driving force” for illegality and indiscipline.

“We’ve been lobbying for a fare increase for years,” said Allan Blair, president of the National Council of Taxi Associations, one of the groups representing taxi operators.

“We’re still waiting on the minister.”

Blair said the high cost of doing business, including insurance, spare parts, maintenance, is the biggest issue faced by operators, and that affects everything else.

Lobbying for a fare increase

Egerton Newman, head of one of the main lobby groups for taxi and bus operators, said his group, the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services, is continuing to agitate for a fare increase, despite the fizzling last year of a strike called to push the Government for such.

“We are not giving up our request for a rate increase. It’s becoming a political matter now,” Newman said.

Blair, for his part, admitted that drivers were being unprofessional and just “hustling”.

He said because some are hustling to cover their costs and pay vehicle owners, “they drive on the soft shoulder, get out of the line of traffic, and speed to make another trip as they try to get the extra dollar”.

Blair said his and other associations can only try to educate members, but it’s the Transport Authority and the police who have the responsibility for law and order and for sanctions against errant and unlawful practices.

Taxi and bus operators have at different times and on different routes given themselves a fare increase by overloading their vehicles on each trip and charging extra, outside the approved Transport Authority schedule. The widespread hiking of fares at night is also one commonly used way of earning extra money.

Marjorie, who wished not to use her last name, works in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in Free Port Montego Bay, St James, and lives near Rhyne Park housing scheme in the parish. She pays $150 from her downtown Montego Bay home during the day, but after midnight the fare is doubled. Hundreds of workers in the western city use public transport after hours to get to and from work in the BPO and hotel sector. The management of several hotels and BPO firms try to help staff, who have to work nights and who have to pay the higher fare, by offering various “incentives”, as a kind of subsidy to cushion the blow.

But the biggest culprits in the overcharging are the ‘white plate’ or illegal operators whose numbers are expanded at night.

Two operating transport systems

As far as the bus and especially taxi service is concerned, there are two transport systems operating in Jamaica, particularly in the rural areas. One, mostly involving public passenger vehicles (PPVs), goes from about 7 or 8 a.m. through to around 6 or 7 in the evening, and the other operates in the dark into the night and very early, before the Transport Authority and police are back on the road. The night service goes unregulated and carries different fare rates.

“The load in the night is taken up by white plate or unlicensed, unregistered operators,” Blair said.

Newman said the licensed operators can’t work from morning until night and so other (illegal) operators come in to offer a service.

That service is costly and unregulated.

For example, between 8 p.m. and midnight, taxi drivers operating between Spanish Town in St Catherine and Ocho Rios in St Ann charge between $800 and $1,000. That route is not designated for route taxis. The scheduled fare is $350 on buses. However, even with regular licensed buses, there is overcharging. Those operators using the North-South Highway, or toll road, charge $500 as there has been no fare schedule or conditions accommodating the toll they have to pay to use the highway.

“Toll Road to Ochi!” drivers or their back-up men shout to indicate that the fare will be higher than that approved.

Taxi overload

In addition to the overcharging, the illegal taxis are always overloaded, as a way of earning more each trip. In most parishes, they routinely carry four in the back and sometimes two in front (seven, including the driver) in a regular five-seater car. They carry nine plus driver (10) in the seven-seater cars. Those vehicles, in effect, automatically void their insurance by the practice, leaving passengers without any coverage.

From Gleaner checks and observation, there is absolutely no regulation or checks of these vehicles as Transport Authority inspectors do not work nights.

One of the most popular night routes is Half-Way Tree in St Andrew to Spanish Town, St Catherine, after hours. The route is heavily trafficked and underserved by the JUTC. It is served from Molynes Road and Eastwood Park Road, across from the Transport Centre in Half-Way Tree.

The regular, daytime Jamaica Urban Transit Company fare and charge on Coaster buses between Spanish Town and Half-Way Tree is $100. But, after 7 o’clock, the fares go up to $200 on the white-plate taxis that come out in numbers and $150 on the Coaster buses that predominate on the route.

Back-up men and conductors shout from doors to approaching passengers ‘Dollar fifty ($150)’. Surveillance by The Gleaner revealed that, though police sometimes monitor the Eastwood Park/Molynes Road stop and try to prevent the area being made into a terminus, there are no checks by the Transport Authority.

In Mandeville, Manchester, higher fares at night are also widespread, as is overcrowding.

Said Kasey Williams, a student at Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville campus: “The public transport system this side [central Jamaica] is a disgrace.”

Williams said cars routinely carry four in the back and do not move from the stand unless they are so loaded, and the Coaster buses operating to the capital city insist on five people to a row.

“The Coaster buses from Mandeville to the Corporate Area are a trip. If you are taking one tomorrow you have to prepare from overnight, get your body and mind ready for that. They won’t move until they have five in every row. They squeeze you in.”