To have all restrictions removed on maxi taxis licenses will be nothing less than chaos.
This was the immediate reaction to Minister of Finance Colm Imbert’s announcement during yesterday’s Budget 2017-2018 presentation in the Parliament by president of the Red Band Maxi Taxi Association Linus Phillip.
Imbert said with the measure he believes it would result in equity and assist in transportation, “it is the intention of this Government to remove the current restrictions on allocation of maxi taxi licenses…remove it all together.”
“No longer will there be restrictions on ownership of banded maxi taxis,” he added.
Imbert explained that people will be able to buy and band their maxis and drive wherever they please.
“Without any restriction…this will open up the public transportation system,” Imbert said.
However, Phillip is not pleased with the move as he strongly believes that removing all restrictions would only serve to disrupt the entire public transportation system in T&T.
“First of all, restrictions were placed for various reasons and any time all restrictions are removed there will be total chaos,” Phillip said.
He added that there was no consultation with the Maxi Taxi Associations, neither all other stakeholders on this. “According to an engineer’s survey, 80 per cent of the population travels…with traffic congestion and people reaching to work late, how could removing all restrictions assist?” Phillip asked
Some of the restrictions, according to Phillip, included the amount of maxis on a particular route and secondly, if a person buys a maxi and puts it in a particular colour band it means that maxi could only work on that route and cannot go on different routes.
He said such restrictions are law and are listed in the Maxi Taxi Act. “Therefore if it means that all restrictions be lifted, it will mean that the Act will have to go back to the Parliament to have the restrictions removed,” he added.
Phillip said what should have been done was implement a Transportation Policy, which the associations have been lobbying for some time.
He added that since there was no consultation in the first place he is interested to see how it would work and what the Minister of Works and Transport has to say on it.
Imbert also announced that Government will seek to replace the ageing fleet of Public Transportation Services Corporation buses with the purchase of 35 new buses in 2018.
MAXI TAXI ACT 48:53
n A maxi-taxi may, on normal work days, be operated outside of the route area for which it is registered for the following purposes:
n To conduct sight-seeing, cultural, recreational, familiarisation or similar tours; or
n To convey members of a group—educational, sporting, religious or otherwise—on a charter basis to a named destination.
n A maxi-taxi operating under this regulation shall be clearly marked “chartered”.
n The registered owner of a maxi-taxi may, upon payment of a fee of one hundred dollars and with the prior approval in writing of the Authority, change the route area for which the maxi-taxi is registered.
n Where approval is given to change a route area, the colour bands of the new route area shall replace those previously used.
n A person who contravenes any of the provisions of this regulation is liable on summary conviction to a fine of five hundred dollars and to a further fine of fifty dollars for each day on which the offence continues after conviction.