The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

IRATE taxi cab drivers blocked the road at Freeport Harbour to protest what they are calling the unfair “hogging” and transport of cruise ship passengers by private tour operators.

Some time around 10am on Friday, cab drivers parked their vehicles across the causeway, preventing H Forbes buses and other tour operators access into the harbour.

Grand Bahama Taxi Union President David Jones, with Vice-president Harold Curry, and taxi drivers refused to move and police officers were called in to clear the way and restore order.

Mr Curry said cab drivers are angry and fed up with the current state of affairs at the harbour, where he claims one private tour operator is moving almost 1,400 passengers from one cruise ship on a daily basis.

“We are lucky if we get ten cars moving passengers,” he said.

There are some 400-500 cab drivers in Grand Bahama.

In December, when Prime Minister Perry Christie announced plans for expanded cruise services to Grand Bahama, he said there would be equal sharing in the movement of passengers between tour operators and taxi drivers at the harbour.

However, said Mr Curry, that is not happening. He said the Department of Road Traffic’s laws need to be enforced at the harbour.

“We have gone to all the proper authorities, and we also met with Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna Martin, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, and still nothing has been done, so we decided to take matters in our hands and protest,” Mr Curry said.

He said that cab drivers are parked at the harbour for one week before they can get a job.

“They come out here every day watching the huge buses take thousands of passengers daily from the harbour – that is unfair hogging,” he said.

Mr Curry said cab drivers are hurting.

“Their lights are turning off, they can’t meet mortgage, or pay taxi licence fees because one bus company is taking over 1,400 passengers a day – that is wrong.”

“We have to do something, and the government has to step up because we are tired of their empty promises.”

“We will continue to do this every day until something is done, and until the laws are enforced out here,” he said.

Veteran cab driver Earl Godet said the law states that cab drivers have the right to transport all round trip passengers and those who have booked excursions while on board the ship.

He stated that tour operators can only move prearranged passengers who are booked a day in advance of the cruise.

“We have no problems if they taking prearranged passengers, but it is impossible for us to believe that for the last four days the ship has been here with some 1,400 passengers each time, and taxicab drivers cannot move 300 people, something is definitely wrong,” he said.

Mr Godet said one cab driver was parked for 10 days before getting a job for $120.

“How in the world they expect for us to live on that? The (prime minister) himself said we would get 50 per cent of the people, and we ain’t even getting 10 per cent. It is ridiculous, and they wonder why people rebel and protest.”

“We are asking the powers that be …to hear our cry. I have lived through 1958 (during the General Strike) and I am not interested in going back to those days. We are supposed to be a progressive nation, so afford us those opportunities that we can make a living so we can send our children and grandchildren to college, the same say way they did,” Mr Godet said.

“All we are asking for is fairness, nothing more, nothing less. The law states those passengers sold for excursions while on board the ship should go to taxicab drivers.”

Mr Curry added that it is hard to see cab drivers sitting idle while tour operators are able to transport tourists and make money.

“We (see) what they are resigned to do, play dominos and cards waiting and hoping for a job. We are tired, the law needs to be enforced, and we need people in authority to uphold the law.

“Section 220 Road Traffic Act Section C tells you what private charters can and can not do.”

Mr Curry explained that the law states a tour should be booked a day before the journey occurs, before the cruise ship leaves the destination. Anything booked on the cruise belongs to the cab drivers, he said.

He said the law also states that the private charters can move groups, such as sports, religious and church groups, and not individual families put together as a group.

“All we are asking government to do is to make these people follow the rules and regulations of the land,” he said.

Cab driver Cabus Ferguson said the government is subsiding the cruise ships and the Memories Hotel with taxpayers’ money, and it is unfair that hundreds of cab drivers are not benefiting from this.

“We have been hoodwinked and bamboozled. Unemployment is high and everything is dead, and the only persons benefitting are (charter buses), which take passengers to the Memories Hotel,” he claimed.

Ricardo Richardson, a cab driver of 33 years said, this is the worst he has seen things in Grand Bahama.

Another driver, Edwin Kemp, said: “The situation is very depressing. I started in driving cab in ‘79, my father and brother were also cab drivers and we had the exclusive right to move passengers at the harbour. Now the tour operators have taken over everything. This is not right, it is not fair.”