Maxi taxi drivers assigned to transport primary and secondary students are threatening to withhold their services if some $12 million owed to them for the past four months are not paid before the end of this month.
The new school term opens in September and any disruption in transport services can result in chaos for thousands of students.
Members of the Association of Maxi Taxi School Transport Concessionaires of Trinidad who protested outside the Education Ministry at St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain yesterday said they are struggling to make ends meet, so much so that financial institutions have threatened to repossess their vehicles, which for many of them are their only means of making a livelihood.
Sixty-year-old Stanley Cummings, of Point Fortin, said he recently bought a new 22-seater maxi to transport school children and has not been paid for the past three months.
He said the insurance for a year is $42,000 and the monthly instalment is close to $10,000.
The father of three children ages 13, 16 and 21 who is also the sole breadwinner said his future looked “very bleak.”
“I am very concerned because my instalments keep piling up and at any moment my maxi could be repossessed. What is my position then?” Cummings asked.
Harold Codrington, another driver, said he his application for a credit card was turned down by a commercial bank owing to the inconsistent payments from the ministry.
“I have a daughter studying law in Barbados and I have to pay her fees and I don’t know where I’m getting the money to do that. The inconsistent payments are making it very difficult to do anything,” Codrington said.
Carrying placards which read, “No $, No Fuel” and “We earned our money, Can’t get it,” members of the association complained that they were being treated with “disdain.”
The association’s president Rodney Ramlogan said some 36,000 school children from remote areas like Icacos are transported from their homes to schools and back daily.
“There are more than 350 concessionaires who are attached to the maxi taxi school transport system and when they are not paid on time at least 350 families are placed in difficult financial situations.
“Concessionaires have been providing and efficient and effective service for school children in rural and suburban communities in Trinidad from areas stretching Cedros to Guayaguayare to Matelot and the whole of Central Trinidad,” Ramlogan said.
He said the money is supposed to be paid on a fortnightly basis but in many cases, payments for the first quarter take as long as two months to be issued.
“A big maxi the fee for a fortnight would be $7,000 and a small maxi $4,000. If we don’t get our money then we would not be able to go out to work come September,” Ramlogan said.
EDUCATION MINISTER TO VERIFY CLAIMS
Contacted on the matter, Education Minister Anthony Garcia said measures were being put in place to ensure payment could be made to the maxi taxi operators.
Garcia could not verify the $12m debt, saying, “We have to do a complete review of this whole system. While we recognise that the maxi taxi drivers perform yeoman service there are some grey areas we need to clear up. “For example, we do not have an accurate account on the exact number of students who they transport on a daily basis.
We want to liaise with the schools so that they would give us a figure with respect to the number of students who they had approved to travel with the maxi taxis because approvals must come from the schools,” Garcia said.
He said the school principals would determine which students were in need of the maxi taxi service. A statement issued by the Ministry of Education stated that the Public Transport
Service Corporation was currently processing payments. Part of the outstanding debt was paid on August 3, the ministry stated. Garcia said that efforts are being made to expedite the process.