By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN taxi driver is upset with the government’s stipulation that taxi drivers must now keep their cars in an “immaculate” condition to pass inspection, without specifying the interpretation of “immaculate”, which could be a tiny scratch. Also complicating the matter, he said, is the illegal renting of licence plates from plate owners who do not drive their taxis.

Lamorn Rolle told The Tribune that taxi drivers were upset over the government’s new requirements. He further blamed the government for not instituting a scale or some form of rubric that would allow officials at the Road Traffic Department to give an informed assessment of the state a taxi should be in.

To date, he said, numerous taxi drivers have experienced difficulties in passing their bi-annual inspections because of inconsistent assessments by various road traffic officers.

“(Road traffic officers) are put out there to look for certain things and they don’t have (a) scale on how they should measure on what the car should be able to pass for or fail,” Mr Rolle said in a recent interview. “So you go to one road traffic officer, he could pass you with minimum scratches on your car, or some minimum damage.

“You go to a next officer; if he’s in a bad mood or wants to play stink, he doesn’t even have to pass you. But there’s no scale on what the government is putting out there to how they should go about failing or passing a cab.”

He also said that the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union, the union that represents taxi drivers, is not doing anything about the issue. Taxi drivers, he said, are now basically left to “argue amongst themselves” on the matter.

Mr Rolle said that, as it stands, some taxi drivers pay nearly $500 monthly to rent licence plates from certain individuals, who include taxi drivers or persons with taxi drivers in their families and who have “inherited” their plates. The practice of renting or leasing plates, he said, was made illegal under the previous Ingraham administration, but is still done in some quarters.

New plates, said Mr Rolle, are not being issued because of a perceived glut in the system.

“You have some 1,200 plates that were issued out in the years past, and I think we maybe only have 800 on the road. Right now you’re looking at plates just being dormant, sitting under someone’s mattress, or stuffed somewhere up in someone’s closet.”

He added: “The plates aren’t being issued anymore because it’s all taken up by politicians’ friends and family.”

Mr Rolle said that the situation has complicated the current dilemma taxi drivers face.

“You’re looking at persons out there who are not guaranteed work, going out there by the grace of the Lord, trying to basically make ends meet,” he said. “And on top of that, no matter what you make, you have to find $400-$500 to meet (a rental fee), and then they want you to fix and maintain a car. If just a tiny scratch is on it, they’re failing you. You don’t make any ends meet, and on top of that you have to come up with fee money at the end of the day.”

He added: “Why should you be hitting somebody who is leasing a plate illegally right now, who already out there hustling? This isn’t a tour company that has millions of dollars coming in every year.

“It’s crazy. I think they’re overdoing it. (The government) should have a scale on how the car should meet the requirements to pass, not just having anybody to come there and grade you however they see fit.”