Cabbies break strike, mull ticket payment plan

Public passenger vehicle (PPV) operators have agreed to return to work today and are seeking to broker a payment proposal following a meeting with government officials at the Ministry of Transport and Works on Tuesday.

Hundreds of taxi operators across the island sought to pressure the Holness administration over two days into imposing an amnesty on the payment of traffic tickets but the Government rejected those calls on Monday.

Egeton Newman, head of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS), said that taxi associations met with Transport Minister Audley Shaw, and representatives from the Transport Authority, the Island Traffic Authority, and the Road Safety Unit.

In an interview with The Gleaner Tuesday evening, Newman said the operators “will be back at work providing the best travel experience”.

“We had a very good discussion. We put our concerns on the table and we heard from the government officials and we were asked to put a proposal together, in terms of a payment plan, to pay our outstanding tickets, and present it to the ministry tomorrow to be taken to Cabinet on Monday, and we have agreed,” Newman said.

One taxi operator who gave his name only as Donald was furious that the Government had granted a two-week gun amnesty but had been unwilling to guarantee cab drivers a similar privilege.

“It is only fair for us to get an amnesty! If we even come up with the money and go in front a di judge, we a go lose we licence!” said Donald, who was among cabbies parked in North Parade, Kingston, on Monday.

He argued that the payment deadline often passes before they can muster the funds for their traffic violations.

“Remember, nuff of us out here, we trust (borrow money for) our car! We paying for our car! We paying mortgage! We have kids going to school, and we can get 10 tickets if we bad-lucky fi di day!” he said.

Donald said also that taxi operators in downtown Kingston were being constantly ticketed for stopping behind Jamaica Urban Transit Company buses to offload and on-board passengers on the grounds that drivers were obstructing traffic.

Another taxi operator, Leaford Wright, who said he is a “victim of tickets”, gave other reasons as to why cabbies are deserving of an amnesty.

He told The Gleaner that many of them are just recovering from losses incurred during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We not even come out of the woods well and Government a pressure we bout outstanding tickets! No disrespect to Mr Holness or Mr Golding, but dem need fi shed some light pon dis, because we a suffer how long,” Wright said.

At a meeting hosted by TODSS on Sunday at Half-Way Tree Primary School, where there was a 99 per cent vote in favour of a strike, Jamor Nooks, a bus operator, said drivers along the St Andrew West Rural route were being ticketed repeatedly for stopping along Constant Spring Road. He argued that several bus stops have been removed in road expansion works.

Nooks said he and dozens of bus and taxi drivers have been unwarrantedly been receiving traffic tickets from the police at pickup points that were once designated bus stops.

The operators from St Andrew West Rural withdrew their services on September 13 and 14 to protest the removal of the bus stops.

“Dem seh dem a come out with some temporary bus stop, and up till now, we haven’t seen any, and di police dem still a charge we from Constant Spring Police Station to Oakland bus stop,” Nooks said.

He also voiced concerns with the latest version of traffic tickets issued on thermal receipt paper which reportedly fades before the expired period for payment.

“Mi get three a dem and mi fold dem up and put dem where my licence is. You see when mi take dem fi pay di ticket dem, nothing no deh pan di ticket dem. You can’t go tax office and pay nothing,” Nooks said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com