The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

TRIBUNE BUSINESS REPORTER

anixon@tribunemedia.net

TAXI operators who depend heavily on Cabbage Beach for cruise ship passenger business say the closure of access to the popular Paradise Island beach could deliver a significant blow to their livelihoods, with some estimating they could lose as much as 70 percent of their business.

The concerns come as taxi drivers say Cabbage Beach remains one of the most requested destinations among cruise ship passengers, many of whom have limited time on the island and prefer the beach because of its proximity to the cruise port.

Keith Smith, a taxi driver, said the loss of easy access to Cabbage Beach would make it increasingly difficult for drivers to provide beach excursions to cruise passengers. He said other beach access points on Paradise Island have also been closed, leaving taxi operators with fewer options when passengers request a nearby beach.

“A lot of us taking them to Cable Beach now, which is further out,” Mr Smith said. “Sometimes tourists, they be on the beach having a good time, pineapples and stuff. When they check the time, they run down off the beach and say, ‘We got to leave now. The boat is going to leave.’ It’s real tough. It’s real hard.”

Mr Smith estimated that his taxi business from cruise ship passengers could decline by between 40 and 45 percent if access to Cabbage Beach is lost.

While some passengers are willing to visit other beaches, he said others specifically request Cabbage Beach because of its reputation and convenience.

“Some people don’t want to go there. And they so used to Cabbage Beach, they don’t want to go out there,” he said.

For taxi operators, the beach is not simply a destination but an important component of the tours they sell.

“Most of the time, when you do a tour, sometimes taxi drivers go on a sightseeing tour, and they include the beach also to get the tour,” Smith said. “The closest thing would be for them is to come here.”

Cliff Rolle, who has been a taxi driver since 2009, said Cabbage Beach is prominently featured in advertisements promoting The Bahamas and is consequently one of the locations visitors frequently request.

“And that’s the one beach that most of the guests come and ask for,” Mr Rolle said.

He estimated that between 50 and 70 percent of his business comes from Cabbage Beach.

“With the guests coming here and asking for this one particular location, and with them shutting off the access, they’re basically cutting off our feet when it comes down to our livelihood,” he said.

Mr Rolle also argued that public access to the country’s beaches should remain a priority as development continues.

“I am all for development and moving forward, but the majority rules,” he said. “That’s us, the people. So you cannot be taking the minority consideration because they have the funding to back them, and putting the majority at a disadvantage where they can no longer provide for their families.”

Ricardo Fowler similarly estimated that roughly 60 to 70 percent of his business comes from Cabbage Beach, while noting that some drivers depend on the location for as much as 80 or 90 percent of their earnings.

“How we gone survive?” Mr Fowler said.

The potential loss of Cabbage Beach business is occurring against the backdrop of another growing concern among taxi operators: increased competition at the cruise port from livery and independent transportation operators.

Neville Toote, who has been a taxi driver for 24 years, said Cabbage Beach has been one of his primary areas of work because of the large number of repeat cruise passengers who are familiar with the destination.

“This is one of my primary places of working in the years that I’ve been a taxi driver because a number of persons are familiar with Cabbage Beach,” Mr Toote said. “We receive cruise ships daily, and these persons that are coming here are repeat customers, most of them.”

Mr Toote said taxi operators are also facing increased competition at the cruise port from livery drivers, who he claims have increasingly begun soliciting passengers there over the past several months.

“We are now experiencing them merging at the cruise ships now,” he said. “So it’s becoming a growing problem.”

Mr Toote argued that livery transportation was intended to be prearranged rather than involve direct solicitation of passengers at the port.

“It is intended to be prearranged transportation,” he said. “They are coming now soliciting for hire.”

He said the changing transportation environment at the cruise port has left taxi drivers at a disadvantage, with independent tour companies and other transportation providers increasingly meeting cruise passengers before taxi operators.

“The challenge that we face especially at the port you have a number of different transportation agencies,” Mr Toote said. “You got Junkanoo, alcohol tours, food tours, smoking tours, all these different tours already poses a challenge for us.

“We, as taxi drivers, don’t even have the opportunity to meet these guests initially because the way they have us positioned now. They have all of these independent tour companies meeting the guests first. We are secondary now.”

Mr Toote said taxi drivers were originally told they would be positioned toward the rear of the cruise port to solicit transportation and tour business but said that arrangement never materialised.

“When this port initially opened or when they were set to initially open, they had a big meeting at Baha Mar with the taxi drivers explaining to us that we were going to be at the rear of the port,” he said. “We have never yet made it to the back where they were initially supposed to have us placed.”

He said drivers are now positioned near the front of the pier, while other transportation providers have access to arriving passengers.

Mr Toote acknowledged that some taxi drivers have failed to meet expected standards.

“There has been a number of complaints concerning taxi drivers coming from the port, and there have been taxi drivers who have given them sufficient reason to,” he said.

However, he argued that government enforcement and training have not kept pace with the expansion of the taxi industry.

“It is a fact that we have some drivers that do not follow the rules and the regulations,” Mr Toote said. “But it stems to the root of the problem where, from a government aspect, I feel like the government agency from Road Traffic itself has fall short on enforcing a number of these rules.”

He also raised concerns about the issuance of hundreds of new taxi plates without sufficient training for new operators.

“The government just gave out hundreds of plates with no seminar, with no kind of project to say training these people as it relates to transportation and meeting the guests,” he said.

Mr Toote said new entrants into the industry need more than a taxi plate; they also need to understand how to conduct themselves as ambassadors for the country.

For drivers like Toote, Smith, Rolle and Fowler, the Cabbage Beach dispute could compound existing pressures facing taxi operators already competing for a shrinking share of cruise passenger business.

Mr Smith said taxi drivers need government intervention and clarity on what comes next.

“Somebody from the government who is in charge need to come and sit down or have a meeting with us, and so we can know if we need to branch out someplace else or what to do,” he said.