By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Writer

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The taxi union’s president yesterday admitted the authorities need “more teeth” to punish rogue operators as the police were summoned to investigate an alleged incident involving one driver and a group of tourists.

Wesley Ferguson, the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union’s (BTCU) chief, told Tribune Business that the roll-out of the new code of conduct for drivers will help curb conflicts involving the sector and visitors as a group of cruise ship passengers complained one operator had absconded with their belongings and left them stranded to the beach. They also had to spend hundreds of extra dollars to find an alternative ride back to the cruise port.

Conceding that the taxi industry’s current code of conduct lacks the “teeth” to be effective and levy proper disciplinary measures against drivers who have “spiralled out of control”, Mr Ferguson added: “We are still waiting on the ministry [of transport and housing] to actually roll out the new code of conduct. That’s to sort of mitigate some of these incidents and give them some kind of clear directive on what course of action should be taken in a situation like this.

“We need the ministry to agree on it and have it gazetted, basically as law, so it can give the authorities more teeth in order to have efficient and good governance in the taxi industry. Because of a lack of administrators and the lack of disciplinary measures levied against taxi drivers, they seem to basically spiral out of control.”

A video was widely circulated on social media yesterday depicting a tourist relaying their alleged experience with a taxi driver. The speaker identified herself as Megan, and said she hired a taxi to take her party of 18 around for the day at a rate of $30 per person.

She alleged that the driver dropped the group off at Junkanoo Beach and agreed to collect them at 3pm. Megan said the driver never returned for the group and absconded with a bag of her daughter’s that contained souvenirs and the sea card for the cruise ship. She added that the experience cost her group $610.

“We paid $30 a person for 18 people to drive us around for the day,” Megan said. “He said he would take us anywhere we wanted to go for the day. We went to the Queen’s Staircase and then he drove us to Junkanoo Beach, where he said he would be back at 3pm to pick us up and never came back to get us.

“He said we could leave our belongings in his vehicle, and my daughter left her bag with her necklace and her bracelet that we had just bought from the market by this Queen’s Staircase, and her sea card to get back on the ship. Then he never came back to get us. We had to pay another $70 in taxis to get back to the port, so that’s what $600.. $610 now we’ve paid.”

Mr Ferguson said the union was responsible for making the video. It was passed to the relevant authorities and he was unaware of how became public. He added that the taxi union is conducting the investigation because they have an agreement with the Nassau Cruise Port (NCP), and that incidents such as this happen “daily”.

He said: “It is the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union who is in charge of the investigation because we have an agreement with Nassau Cruise Port to actually operate and run the taxi industry, so we assist them in the disciplinary measures against taxi drivers.

“It’s on a daily basis that these things happen. It’s just that particular video was recorded by an executive of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union, and I don’t know how it went viral, but it was the union that passed the information on to the police, the authorities at the Nassau Cruise Port and the Road Traffic Controller, Linda Moxey.”

“Road Traffic is supposed to be the watchdogs of this industry, make sure that dress codes are kept, upkeeping of your taxi, making sure you have all the requisite licences and paperwork that qualifies you to be a taxi driver,” Mr Ferguson added.

“The responsibility of disciplining taxi drivers rests on the shoulders of the Road Traffic controller. We pass the information on to the controller so that she can have all of the information that she needs in order to do proper due process and disciplinary measures.”

Mr Ferguson again criticised the issuance of new taxi plates to drivers who were not properly trained and regulated, adding that the situation is a “dark mark” on the taxi and tourism industries. 

He said: “I went on record and said look for the influx of the new taxi drivers untrained, ungazetted, unregulated. This was going to happen. I’ve been in this industry long enough to know when things are going to go haywire. He received a new taxi plate. I wouldn’t say he’s a new driver but you have to understand, when things get out of hand and you have an uptick in competition, it causes good drivers to turn bad because the competition is fierce. The union went on record to say that these kinds of things may happen.”

Jobeth Coleby-Davis, minister of transport and housing,said yesterday that the ministry is aware of the incident and police are looking into the matter. “Please be advised the Ministry of Transport and Housing and the Road Traffic Department is aware of the incident involving a taxi driver and a tourist. The police are investigating the matter. Once the police investigation is completed, the ministry will provide an update,” she said.

The taxi driver allegedly involved in the incident yesterday responded in a social media voice note where he denied any wrongdoing. He he acknowledged that he transported a group of 18 at the rate of $30 per person to Junkanoo Beach and arranged to collect them at 3pm.

However, he said he arrived at 2.45pm and waited until 3.20pm for the group and, when they did not come to the vehicle, he left. The driver indicated that to his knowledge none of the tourists’ belongings were left in his taxi and that he is running a business and not obligated to wait on late clients.

He said: “I had these people today on tour, it was 17, 18 of them for $30 a person. I been to the Fort almost an hour with these people. They tell me I must carry them to the beach, come back for them like 3 o’clock. I reach there like 2.45 early, and 3.20 these people ain’t never show up so I leave.

“I ain’t stay there till no 3.30 or no quarter to four because guess what? If the ship say 10 minutes, ain’t no different than the ship. I don’t want nobody to think I obligated to stay there and wait till they decide they want to come back. That ain’t how it work. I running a business and that’s the way it go.”