What about us? Taxi drivers say all the focus on PH

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The Trinidad and Tobago Taxi Drivers Network is calling on the Minister of Works and Transport to meet with its members.

On Wednesday the drivers held a news conference outside the ministry’s head office on the proposed move by the government to regulate PH taxi drivers.

“We are vex, we have written to the Works and Transport Minister on four different occasions requesting a meeting that we were promised in 2020. We wrote to the Minister and up to this date we have not gotten a response from him,” said President of the Trinidad and Tobago Taxi Drivers Network, Adrian Acosta.

Acosta added, “We realise that the government is paying a lot of attention to the illegal and we are being left behind, so we are out here to show our disappointment,” he said.

Acosta said he is very puzzled that the government is now planning to regularise an illegal entity.

“There is a right way to do things and there is a wrong way to do things, PH is illegal, get your taxi badge and become a legitimate taxi driver, there is already a process in place for that,” he explained, “We have made some recommendations to the Minister of Works and Transport on how they can become legal taxi drivers. One we have asked them to remove the finances for six months so who don’t have the money to do it that would bring them in, two we have said put a number on all taxi stands so that in the event a PH driver would not leave the area that he was working.”

He added the network comprises over 50 taxi associations which are all upset.

Discussions and lobbying for the government to regularise PH taxi drivers gained momentum following the murders of Ashanti Riley and Andrea Bharatt, who were killed while taking transportation.

Just weeks ago, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said there was a way to regularise Part-Time taxi drivers which will include a full registration system that ties into the Police Service database.