By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER Nassau Cruise Port director has praised the government’s decision to recall nearly 800 inactive taxi and livery plates, but believes officials should go further by permanently deactivating them and imposing a moratorium to curb the oversaturated market.

Ed Fields, who served as the port’s director of business development and is the former managing director of the Downtown Nassau Partnership, also urged the government to publish a list of current plate holders, saying he is certain some plates are being held by people who should not have them.

“The distribution of public service franchises is not as a result of any analysis of need, nor is it based on awarding these franchises to people who are directly engaged in the industry,” he said. “They are coveted gems that serve as rewards to the favoured.”

His comments came after the Ministry of Transport and Energy announced plans to recall 783 taxi and livery plates that had been inactive for more than six months.

Transport Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis said the high number of inactive plates has “skewed” revenue intake at the Road Traffic Department, with an audit now underway.

Mr Fields called the move a great step in addressing long-standing problems in the industry but said more decisive action is needed, adding that the issues go “far deeper than a recall will resolve.”

He warned that reactivating the plates would worsen the existing imbalance in the market.

“If these plates are inactive and we are currently in a state of imbalance, re-issuance would only exacerbate the situation,” he said. “That’s just plain and simple math.”

Mr Fields also said the government should release the names of existing plate holders, insisting that public officers and people outside the transportation industry should not possess them.

He further called for a moratorium on new plates until supply and demand are properly balanced and urged political parties to pledge that the moratorium will be maintained and plates will not be used as political handouts.

He said the “insidious practice of leasing plates” must also end, calling this “akin to sharecropping or indentured servitude.”

“The practice of issuing contracts, permits, plates and franchises to people so that they can lease them out is unfair,” he said, “The practice simply creates middlemen between citizens deserving of those opportunities while enriching those that do not deserve or are, under the law, not entitled to them.”

Industry representatives have long criticised the government’s handling of taxi plate issuances, with Bahamas Taxicab Union President Tyrone Butler saying officials should have recalled inactive plates before “recklessly” issuing hundreds of new ones years ago.

He said the move oversaturated the market, forcing many operators to lease their plates to others, only for many to later go inactive as demand declined.

He said some plates belong to retired or deceased holders and that he supports the government recalling those. However, he believes people should still be allowed to update their plates if necessary.