By Annelia Nixon

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Taxicab Union’s (BTCU) president yesterday asserted “it’s kind of ironic” that the Government is seeking to recall almost 800 taxi and livery plates when it was responsible for “saturating the market” with new issuances at the start of its term.

Tyrone Butler, speaking after the Ministry of Transport and Energy revealed that the Road Traffic Department plans to recall 783 plates that have been inactive for six months or more come November 30, nevertheless told Tribune Business that the union is open to working with the Government to address the issue as well as the growth of the industry.

The 783 inactive plates were identified during an audit of New Providence and Grand Bahama’s taxi and livery plates, and the industry now faces a crackdown to deal with an over-saturated market in which too many drivers are chasing too little business.

As of November 30, the Road Traffic comptroller will recall Taxi and livery plates that have been inactive for six months or more due to delinquency or death of the franchise. While both the BTCU and the Bahamas Livery Drivers Union (BLDU) support the Government’s plan to recall inactive plates, Mr Butler asserted this process should have taken place long before.

“And so it's kind of ironic that they're now coming to do it after they've saturated the market with new plates, only to discover that some of the plates that were being leased - even though individuals got their own plate, those plates continue to be leased,” Mr Butler said. “It really didn't make much sense giving out all the new plates because some of these plates that they're now trying to recall could have been issued in place of some of those new plates.

“So the system would have stayed kind of in line with what is good for the market that's out there, because right now we're losing ground. I mean, they not only issued taxi plates a couple of years ago, but they went ahead and issued quite a number of livery plates. It’s again baffling to know that a government would issue a franchise that really has no legal place to work other than from their place of business.

“So this government has been very reckless with these public service plates. This union cannot understand why this government has been so hostile to taxi drivers. They've treated this industry as if it's nothing important to the country's economy. As president of the Bahamas Taxicab Union, I'm very disappointed in the way this government has been treating the taxi drivers on this island.”

Mr Butler suggested the Government keep an inventory of plates “and hold the line on issuing new plates right now”. He added that the union would like to speak with relevant Government officials to create a plan to better govern the issuance of taxi and livery plates.

“I believe the vast majority of them should go into inventory,” he said. “We have a lot of issues in this business. First of all we have a lot of plates that are out there that shouldn't be out there. That's the ones they are probably looking at. We have a lot of drivers out there that have franchises who, really and truly, shouldn't have franchise. That’s another thing.

“The union would be comfortable sitting down with the Government and coming up with a more strategic plan on when plates are going to be issued; how many are going to be issued? But, more importantly, we'd like to start the dialogue with the Government on some more prominent programmes that are going to help the industry grow. Because right now, the industry is just loaded up with a bunch of misfit degenerates.

“I mean, people who really shouldn't have gotten plates and franchises in the beginning got some, and it's causing some hardship on the industry because we've seen any number of bad acts happening in the taxi industry. And that's because there's no scrutiny, there's no vetting. They're giving them out like candies.”

Mr Butler added: “The union should be made aware of that number. And whenever there's a process to issue plates, the union should always be advised so that we can properly advise the Government whether it's …  I mean, all governments have done it. They're playing politics with taxi plates.

“And any time somebody wants a taxi plate, if it's the supporter of a political party, they just seem to just simply go to their rep and get it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that in the grand scheme of things, but it hurts the industry overall because we know there are some individuals who got plates in the last exercise who actually have two plates when it should have been one plate per person. So there's a lot of work they need to do.”

Mr Butler said probably 90 percent of the plates that will be recalled are taxi plates. Taurian Austin, the BLDU president, said he cannot provide an official number of inactive livery plates but suggested 200 as an estimate.

Mr Austin said he was made aware that an audit would be done and completed near or in October 2025. He added that his union has been in constant communication with the Ministry of Energy and Transport and the Road Traffic Department.

“All of our members have their plates and are active, as we speak,” Mr Austin said. “Those persons that are inactive, they're not members. Those are livery drivers that some family member or deceased relative might have owned and are still out there. But we have members that are trying to get their own personal plate.

“Unfortunately, they are not allowed to because of the limited amount of plates that are out there. So this is why the audit was done. In fact, we asked for this audit and we’re in agreement with the audit taking place so we can find out who, where and why, and how many plates are actually out on the road and being used at this time.”