Drivers say many at risk of losing vehicles and homes

Taxi drivers in Barbados are crying out to Government for urgent help as some face the possibility of going out of business and losing their vehicles and homes.

They are also calling on the administration to consider abolishing the fuel tax for the more than 3 500 operators on the island.

Although the road tax was abolished in July 2018 and replaced with a fuel tax, commercial vehicles are required to pay an annual registration fee that amounts to half the previous road tax.

Jenelle Clarke, who owns a taxi service, made an impassioned plea to Government on Friday for protection and aid for operators.

The plight was highlighted during an open discussion forum at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre where more than 200 taxi operators were introduced to a new taxi hailing app, PickUp Barbados.

Clarke said taxi operators were experiencing a “bleeding” that will not stop unless they receive assistance.

“I am paying half of the road tax, which is $500. We are paying about 40 cents a litre [in fuel tax]. . . $4 500 I have paid at 40 cents a litre last year until 2020 . . . . We are overburdened with taxes. We are in a process where we have a pandemic and don’t even know where the next salary is coming from,” she contended.

She raised the point while opposing a proposal that taxi operators who sign on to the PickUp Barbados app pay the company a commission of 10 per cent for the rest of this year and 20 per cent starting January 2021.

“I want you all to hear our pain,” she said. “Why it is a taxi operator has to go through so much pain in this country? . . . Taxi operators have to drive for the lesser amount of money. It cannot work,” insisted Clarke.

She pointed out that several of them were still making payments to financial institutions for their vehicles, and also had to come up with insurance payments as high as $8 000.

“I would like to see the Government bring shelter insurance. Let us build an insurance shelter for all taxi operators at a reasonable cost in this country,” Clarke suggested to the gathering that included Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Kerrie Symmonds.

“I want you all to hear us. Hear the pain of the taxi operators.”

Another taxi operator who gave his name as Andre Layne, also pointed to the high costs associated with filling up vehicles at the pump.

“We go to the gas station more than any private car and I think honestly we should not be paying [fuel] tax,” he said.

“We have to use gas all the time and still got to pay [fuel] tax. I think the Government has to review that and give us [an ease], especially now with this pandemic that is very hard when it comes to gas.

“When you drive from here to the airport what little fare we get we got to put it back in gas. What money you are getting you have to buy something to eat, you have to put in gas and still deal with the maintenance of the vehicle. So, I think this is something that needs to be looked at when it comes to us paying [fuel] tax,” Layne insisted.

Minister Symmonds said he was aware the sector needed help and promised to go straight to the top with the operators’ concerns.

“I will faithfully commit here now to take it up with the Prime Minister, who is the Minister of Finance, because I understand the point you are making at the gas station. You are all taking a lash at the pump. I understand that. The sector, legitimately, has to have a little help. I get that,” he said.

Taxi operator Yvette Edghill also issued a plea for assistance.

“A lot of us now can’t pay our fees for our vehicles because we are not working. Some moratoriums are going to be out just now from some companies that we are leasing vehicles from. We need assistance now to save our vehicles. We need assistance to save homes because a lot of people cannot pay their mortgages,” she said, adding that some institutions were no longer giving an extension on the moratoriums.

Edghill lamented that while the Government had approached the hotel sector with assistance, “no one has approached us to say we can do this for taxi operators or for taxi people on the whole”.

In response, Symmonds admitted that “the taxi sector has not been one, in my judgment, properly accommodated in all of the COVID-19 relief that has been done across the  island”.

Pointing out that the National Insurance Scheme had paid out some $125 million in unemployment benefits up to October 19, the Minister said while that accounted for those who made a claim, “we have to try and find a way to capture the taxi sector”.

“We have to have this kind of conversation so that we ensure we take some pressure off and help the continuity and sustainability of the business,” he said.

Pointing to FundAccess and the Trust Loan Fund, Symmonds said: “It may well be that we have now to sit down and look at those funds and see how we can rework what they are doing, so they can focus on [making the] assistance to your sector more targeted.”

He added that there was a Cabinet paper on the recapitalisation of both funds, and “therefore, we will have some money”. (marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)