By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

A taxi and tour operator argued that taxi drivers must provide better service while defending livery drivers’ right to earn a living as well.

Following the ongoing dispute between rivals within the transport industry, Cheryl Cambridge, owner of Cheryl’s Bahamas Taxi & Tours which operates across the board providing taxi, livery and tour services, backed livery drivers saying taxi drivers should not think they are the only ones with mouths to feed.

Tyrone Butler, president of the Bahamas Taxicab Union (BTCU) has been vocal about his disapproval of livery drivers operating in spaces reserved for taxis. He has parted with the Bahamas National Alliance Trade Union Congress (BBNATUC) and has since joined the Trade Union Congress (TUC) headed by Obie Ferguson KC, in the hopes that BTCU will see changes in their favor. Mr Butler has argued that “the law does not provide for a livery franchise to be operating in the same space as a taxi driver” and has accused the government of “favoring” livery drivers by allowing them to do so. He has also called out hotel properties for doing the same.

Ms Cambridge, however, said taxi operators cannot dictate to property owners who they allow to service their guests. She also claimed that taxi drivers do not market themselves as a clean and customer friendly choice to tourists or locals and should work towards providing better service.

“What he [Tyrone Butler] fail to understand, you have livery drivers who got children away to school, children in school,” she said. “I know one livery driver who wife have cancer. Every dollar he makes he send to her- she’s away doing treatment. They are Bahamians. They working. They treating them as if they foreigners, [like] they shouldn’t be getting no work. 

“The taxi drivers think only them one have mouth to feed. You must remember now, we are all Bahamians, and we got to feed our family. Number one, you go to the airport, seven, eight o’clock at night, the taxi drivers sleep. At the dock, they sleep. No shower. They sleep in the car. The car smell bad. They don’t use air condition- 99 percent of them don’t have air condition on. You know how much times my guests didn’t come with me and I ask ‘how come you going back with us?’ They say ‘Because we had a ride from hell. The car was dirty. Driver have on jeans, t-shirt and flip flop.’ 

“And so at the end of the day, we need a good service. We need livery drivers who keep the car clean. And you can’t tell Atlantis that a livery driver cannot be on their private property. If someone requests a limousine or a livery, which most of them are the SUVs and town cars, you can’t tell them ‘We don’t have that.’ We do have it. They want their guests to be happy. The taxi drivers get, I would say 75 percent of the business. They want a higher percentage.

“And at the end of the day, they treat the people, the tourist, bad. They don’t even give a little tour on the way down. They smoking and drinking in the car with the guests in the car, speeding, whatever have you.”

Ms Cambridge’s comments echoed complaints made by the public on a recent Tribune Business online article concerning the TUC threatening a strike on behalf of the BTCU. Commenters claimed taxis do not care to service locals, vehicles are unclean, operators drive recklessly and drivers do not display manners. A commenter challenged that a customer should have the right to choose between a taxi and a livery service.

Ms Cambridge also recalled Mr Ferguson’s recent interview with Tribune Business where he stated at least 50 cents of the $1 taxi operators must pay to the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) should be given back to the drivers. While Mr Ferguson argued the law does not permit it and that “taxi drivers do not have no insurance in some instances” Ms Cambridge said as a company she has to pay NAD $3 but it’s only “fair.”

“I’m a company, so we pay $3. I see the taxis saying in the paper where they paying $1 and they ain’t getting nothing back, and Obie [Ferguson] saying they should get 50 cents back. That airport has to be paid for. This money helps to pay for the airport. The airport got to be clean. They have a recreation room, air condition, bathroom facilities. Who paying for that? Who paying for all of this? That same $1 help pay for this. That ain’t free. 

“Our company, we pay $3 and we know that we have a recreation room that has to be paid for. The taxi driver only paying $1 and Obie Ferguson saying, 50 cents, should go back, give it to the taxis for this and they don’t have insurance. That’s their business if they don’t have insurance. We have National Insurance that we have to pay- mandatory. If I don’t pay my national insurance for my staff and me, my business license won’t get renewed. The taxi drivers don’t pay nothing. Let them pay National Insurance. 

“And I don’t ask the government to give me nothing back. I think that’s fair enough, because they keep the grounds clean, keep the area clean, so I could have a bathroom to wash my hand and do whatever else.”