By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union has officially joined the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in hopes that progress will be made to resolve the long-time rivalry between taxi and livery drivers.

Tyrone Butler, who has been vocal about his objection of livery drivers being allowed the right to operate within spaces that “is usually reserved for taxi drivers”, noted that conversations with transport minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis has gone nowhere. Mr Butler, who as The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union president represents in excess of 1,500 active taxi drivers with the union’s membership just under 400 persons, believes they are “going to be able to make some headway in that regard” through their addition to Obie’s Ferguson KC’s umbrella union, the TUC. 

“Because of our business, we’re in the ground transportation, on any given day, on any given site where taxi drivers congregate, be it at the port, especially at the airport and at the different hotel properties, we are finding that a lot of our members are being harassed,” Mr Butler said. “They’re being denied their rightful space on these properties and the biggest challenge that we have right now is that the government has allowed a franchise called livery franchise to operate in a space that is usually reserved for taxi drivers. 

“The law does not provide for a livery franchise to be operating in the same space as a taxi driver. And so the government has been enabling these livery franchise to go out there and operate and basically become a competitor to the taxi industry, and that itself, we’ve been struggling with the government long before I became the president. This union has been grappling with the government to try and eliminate that, but it seems as if what this government has done is they upped the ante, so to speak, because they’ve now issued more livery plates.” 

Mr Butler at a press conference at Mr Ferguson’s office yesterday added: “And so I would invite any of you on any given day, come with me at the Nassau International Airport and see for yourself the number of livery drivers that are standing in the taxi space, competing with taxi drivers when, clearly, the law does not allow for that to happen. It can only happen because the government, the Nassau Airport Authority, NAD, they are encouraging this solicitation by livery drivers. And you go to bigger properties like Atlantis, it’s the same thing. Livery drivers are congregating on the property, soliciting, engaging in any number of things with the employees of these properties. So it’s been a challenge for us. We’ve been in conversations with the minister about trying to fix these issues, and we’ve been making very little progress.”

Mr Butler said the competition between taxi and livery drivers has “substantially” cut into the profits of taxi drives as more taxi franchises have been issued resulting in “a system of about 900 to 1,000 plates, to now 1,700 plus”.

“And then on top of that, the government has introduced an additional three to 400 livery plates,” he added. “So you’re talking a bigger number, but the market and the space that the taxi operate in hasn’t expanded, with the exception of Baha Mar, but that in itself is not enough. And so what we have is this erosion of revenue coming from the taxi drivers going elsewhere.”

While Mr Butler called for the government to have livery franchises “follow the law”, he claimed that livery drivers participate in solicitation and selling a vehicle vs a service.

“It is insulting to a customer for a customer to walk out of the hotel or the airport, and somebody ask them if they would like a particular type of vehicle. They’re not selling a service. They’re selling a vehicle. They’re asking guests if they would like an SUV or a town car. Those are types of vehicles. Those types of vehicles are offered by the major tour operators, Bahamas Experience, Leisure Tours, Majestic Tours, they are the approved tour operators who offer limousine service. To have an individual with one SUV or one town car soliciting a customer for his vehicle. It is wrong. It is insulting. And any government that encourages that really has no vision for what is good customer service. 

“Not only is the government doing it, but it is also encouraged by large properties like Atlantis and Nassau Airport Development company. I can’t in this day and time imagine having spent more than 30 years in hospitality industry, we’ve come to this place where we are allowing people to sell a particular type of vehicle. Customers don’t travel to select vehicles. Customers travel to select service. If you expect car service, you can book through one of the major car companies. That is just the way it is and this government has been reckless, to say the least, in the last couple of years, in the way they’ve allowed the industry to run. And we believe that now, with the Congress here, Mr Ferguson, we believe we’re going to be able to make some headway in that regard.”

While The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union once shared a “relationship” with the TUC, Mr Butler added that eventually both his union and the Livery Drivers Association came to be represented by The Bahamas National Alliance Trade Union Congress. Noting that it wasn’t a comfortable position for his his members, his belief is that their “interest is best served by becoming aligned with the Trade Union Congress”.

“To have two organisations competing against each other in the workspace, but represented by the same president in one Congress, that that just wasn’t something that we felt was in our best interest,” Mr Butler said. “So it was a conflict of interest. We are fighting livery drivers every day, and then we have to sit with them in a Congress meeting headed by Miss Belinda Wilson. That was something that we expressed our disappointment, and we thought that, that could not work. She made an attempt to try to get us to work together, but I don’t see how that would have benefit the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union, because how do you represent one person on this hand, it just made no sense to me.”

Mr Ferguson added that taxi drivers “ain’t getting the deal” and they will play a significant role. Addressing Mr Butler, Mr Ferguson added: “We will sit down, put a plan together, and we will carry out the plan, not against the political party.

“Mr president, you in charge with your officers,” Mr Ferguson added. “You just let us agree on when you want us to do what you want us to do. We will sit down, put a plan together, and we will carry out the plan, not against the political party. That ain’t what we’re doing. We are interested in the workers. If you treat the workers good, we have no problem with you.

“I’m so glad you’re here, because I know we can do something. I can assure you of that. We’re going to do something that is going to be dramatic, and it’s going to be effective. We ain’t got to fight nobody. We know who we are. We know the law too. So we’re going to stand with you. This is a very important day for you and your body, and when you’re ready, you just call me and you and me meet with your officers, with my offices, and we’ll sit down and we work the deal out.”