Jamaica Observer | Friday, August 20, 2021
CLARENDON, Jamaica — Taxi operators along the route from Kellits in Clarendon to Linstead in St Catherine on Friday protested over what they view as the inadequacy of the recently approved 15 per cent fare hike.
The approved fee, including the increase, is now $100 less than the $400 cabbies were already asking of passengers.
They had been charging $350, then they increased the fare to $380, and it was already at $400 when it was announced that a 15 per cent increase had taken the approved fare to $300. On Friday, as they gathered at a remote section of the route, their protest fortified by meals they cooked on the spot, they demanded that the Transport Authority (TA) take another look at how it had calculated the fare.
“We need to get a message to the Transport Authority. They should come and measure up the road [from Linstead to Kellits] and see how much is the right fare, but the $300 can’t work out for us,” said Christopher Rose. “The road bad and the gas [expensive].”
“The fare can’t work out for the $300,” agreed Dane McLean. He and other taxi drivers said they will settle for no less than $400 per passenger each trip.
However, the TA’s Communications Manager Petra-Kene Williams told OBSERVER ONLINE that cabbies had been overcharging passengers all along and they are now expected to bring their fares in line with those recently outlined by the authority.
She added that the taxi operators, through their association, had asked for a review of the recently announced fare for the route.
“The basis for a review of a fare is whether or not the kilometre or the mileage on the route is correct. So, if there is discrepancy with the mileage, we can reconsider [the fare],” she explained. “Based on the information I have received from two different departments at the Transport Authority — our operational and research departments — the [distance] for that route is 37 kilometres and, based on the approved fare, the correct fare for the route is $300.”
Williams reminded taxi operators that it is illegal for them to over-charge passengers, adding that commuters should report any such case to the Transport Authority.
On Friday evening, uncertainty was palpable among taxi operators on the route, which covers mainly narrow, winding rural roads.
Many commuters were left stranded in the towns of Kellits and Linstead while the cabbies intermittently blocked a section of the route known as British Gate, allowing only private vehicles to pass.