PSV owners seek urgent meeting with Uber amid launch concerns

Public service vehicle (PSV) owners want to meet urgently with international ride-hailing technology company, Uber, to try to stave off what they fear is a potential shut down of traditional taxi businesses due to its recent introduction to the local transportation market.

The worldwide giant officially launched its ride-hailing service in Barbados on Tuesday night, promising to improve the transport experience for residents and visitors while positioning itself as a partner to the taxi industry rather than a rival.

An Uber official confirmed that about 400 taxi operators have already signed up to the Uber Taxi platform which is to be operated solely by licensed taxis.

But Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael said his organisation wants to send a clear message to the company that it ought to enter into discussions with the PSV sector leadership sooner rather than later, to provide greater clarity concerning its mission here, and with the possibility that some taxi drivers could be forced out of business.

“My suggestion to Uber is that they should meet with the taxi associations to really point out their mission and what they are proposing for Barbados… because, right now as we speak, with 400 taxis signed on, that is a significant impact on other taxi operators, particularly those working at the airport and the sea port… because Uber is an international organisation, and most persons who are going to be using the Uber brand are people that come in from overseas,” Raphael told Barbados TODAY during an interview on Thursday.

“You would find that those visitors who come to Barbados will sign on automatically to secure their ride. And we believe that the recent hike in taxi tariffs would have driven people to look for cheaper options. I would have raised the red flag that there should have been two fares… because I don’t see any local person paying $160 to go from the airport to St Lucy.”

The head of the AOPT, which also represents taxi operators, expressed misgivings that Uber may start with participation from legal taxis, but may end up welcoming onboard commercial vehicles which carry the ‘C’ designation on their licence plates, but are not registered taxis.

“Remember, we have a new plate called the ‘C’ plate, a commercial plate in which people are already going ahead and misusing the ‘C’ plates, because they use it for all purposes,” Raphael contended.

“People who have Airbnb are using some of those plates for the purposes of persons using their rooms, to tie it into the actual Airbnb. We have situations where the same ‘C’ plates are used for the purposes of transporting persons. So, if you have a group of people going on a tour, people see it as a commercial [vehicle], so they can do it.

“With the purpose of the ’C’ plate not well defined or clear, people are abusing it. Even with the purposes of hired cars, we are likely to see an increase in ‘C’ plates because of the hired car levy [increase] recently put on to the hired industry. So, we are clearly stating that we want to meet with the officials of Uber. Going forward, we know that Uber started with taxis until everybody gets bored,” he further suggested.

However, Raphael pledged that his association, which also looks after the interests of operators of hired cars, mini buses, and ZRs, will be monitoring the situation very closely and carefully.

In a related development, he disclosed that his association was presently in negotiations with a local ‘book-a-ride’ company aimed at using its app similarly to Uber’s digital platform.

“Our association is about to partner with a local company, who already has the app, to see if we can create opportunities for our members as well. Everybody may not be able to sign up [with Uber]. Barbados has about 2 600 taxis registered, 400 already gone in and most of those taxis in operation right now operate from the airport, sea port, or hotels,” Raphael pointed out.

“So, for us, we are going to try to safeguard those persons who are in the Bridgetown area… the airport and sea port. Most of our members come from Bridgetown and most of them are individual taxi operators; and you can see what happens to a lot of them. When you go into Bridgetown, you can see a lot of them just parked, hardly getting a job.

“So, we are going to sit with the provider. We have already had discussions with the provider, and we are going to be launching this app to encourage a number of good initiatives that we are going to be looking at; and ‘book-a-ride’ is one of the areas we are looking at,” he added.

Raphael said when the new app is launched, his association will inform Barbadians and try to encourage them to spend their money with the local taxi businesses.

emmanueljospeh@barbadostoday.bb