The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union’s (BTCU) president yesterday acknowledged it will be a “process” to convert leased plates into a situation where the drivers involved become owner-entrepreneurs.

Wesley Ferguson told Tribune Business he is unaware how many drivers are still leasing their taxi plates.He added that efforts by the Ministry of Housing and Transport to eradicate this practice will progress as more drivers become aware they can own these plates as opposed to leasing them.

“This is a process. It’s a programme that is going through. Not everybody is going to be entitled to a plate because they have to meet certain requirements,” Mr Ferguson said. “For example, if you were leasing a plate and you are now leasing a plate from your car, that will qualify you to get a plate. There are still some people that are driving for somebody and they are not entitled to get a plate.”

Jobeth Coleby-Davis, minister for housing and transport, told yesterday’s Office of the Prime Minister media briefing: “We had a number of consultations and meetings with the taxi union executives and the livery union, just to get an idea of the industry, how it’s functioning, what are some of the present issues and how we could provide some necessary solutions.

Upon taking office, she said she was greeted by a “number of taxi drivers” asking that the moratorium on plates be lifted for drivers who were still leasing. Mrs Coleby-Davis’ predecessor, Renward Wells, lifted the 20 year-plus moratorium in December 2019 under the Minnis administration.

The Ministry of Housing and Transport yesterday set up a Road Traffic Department “substation” at Loyola Hall to handle the number of plate-leasing drivers who want to own their franchise. Mrs Coleby-Davis said: “I asked Cabinet to approve the removing of the moratorium and the issuance of some 300 plates to a large list that I met from Road Traffic Department applicants, and also some names that we had received from the taxi union president and the livery union president.”

More than 100 taxi drivers were waiting 15 years to own their own plate, along with 200 younger drivers who also wanted their own plate, Mr Ferguson told this newspaper previously. In March, some 100 taxi drivers were issued plates with another 500 still waiting to receive theirs.