The Tribune

BY ANNELIA NIXON

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

THE MINISTRY of Transport yesterday warned taxi, livery and tour operators that existing rules at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) remain in force amid competing accounts over a proposed two-week trial that threatens to deepen a long-running dispute.

The Ministry, in a statement issued amid renewed tensions at the airport yesterday, said it remains committed to finding a workable solution but warned that disruptions to airport operations will not be tolerated.

“These issues cannot be resolved without co-operation from all sides. Unfortunately, one of the challenges has been getting all stakeholders to sit in the same room and engage constructively,” it added

The statement came as Tory Austin, the Bahamas Livery Drivers Union (BLDU) president, disputed claims that an agreement had been reached with the Government for a two-week trial changing the way taxi and livery operators function at the airport.

Mr Austin said the livery union remains in discussions with the Government and other stakeholders, and insisted that no trial has been agreed upon. “I cannot speak to that because we know nothing of that,” he said. “I don’t know about no two-week trial. I don’t know about no trial. One-week trial. Two-week trial. No trial I know about.

“All I can tell you is we are in discussions. We’re having continued meetings with all of the partners that are necessary, that needs to be involved, and no decision or no final decision, no trial, no nothing, has ever been in place at this point.”

Mr Austin’s comments directly challenge the account given by Tyrone Butler, the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union’s president. He has asserted that, following a meeting with Leon Lundy, minister of transport last week, it was agreed that livery operators would no longer stand alongside taxi drivers at the airport door while three livery vehicles would remain in designated spaces. The proposed changes were to be tested for two weeks, with the taxi queue also being extended by three spaces.

However, the BLDU’s position is that no final agreement has been reached. Mr Austin said the union has been meeting with Mr Lundy, senior government officials and Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) representatives in an effort to improve the situation at LPIA.

He added that the dispute would be better addressed through direct discussions involving all parties operating within the airport’s transportation system. “It’s very important to have all the stakeholders that are involved with transportation here at the airport and to have these type of meetings to bring positive change,” Mr Austin said.

He added that the livery union has even attempted to meet with the taxi union to resolve their differences. “We’ve made several attempts to sit down, even with the taxi cab union, and to try to iron this out again,” he said. “And they deem us public enemy number one, and they refuse to have any meetings with us.

“The Taxi Cab Union, they march to their own drum. They do their thing. So like I said, it’s not important to us. What is important is we continue to try to converse, bring things to the table, bring our ideas, our concerns, etc. to the table, and try to improve the transportation sector, which is a major tourism sector in this country.”

Mr Austin also questioned how information from Government meetings could be communicated to one group of operators without being properly communicated to the others. “A message can’t be given to the taxis and nobody else knows about it,” Mr Austin said. “Again, I don’t understand how that worked or whatever.”

The disagreement over whether a trial exists comes amid a confrontation at LPIA yesterday involving the allocation of parking spaces. Mr Austin said livery operators arrived to find two taxis occupying spaces designated for livery vehicles, and they contacted the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) and requested that the taxis be moved so they could access their designated spaces.

“The livery drivers never blocked up anything,” he said. “What we did is we came into work, business as usual, and there were two taxis that were parked in our designated areas. The police came and made them move.

“We have six spaces that are designated for livery, and taxis occupied two of them early this morning. And all we did is ask them to move. We didn’t approach the taxi drivers. We went to NAD and the police, and the police came and made them. And there was no issues.”

However, Mr Butler blamed the situation on a failure by senior government officials to properly communicate the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting.

“We were there, queue up as we normally do,” Mr Butler said. “Obviously, the minister of transport, the minister of tourism, the permanent secretary of tourism and the permanent secretary of transport, along with the road traffic controller, all have dropped the ball and have failed to communicate to their relevant agencies what was the plan coming out of the Wednesday meeting. All of them bear responsibility for this debacle that happened this morning.”

The latest confrontation also highlighted a concern from a tour operator, who said they have been excluded from the Government’s discussions despite being impacted by changes to the airport’s transportation arrangements.

One tour operator, who requested anonymity, said Mr Lundy had met separately with livery and taxi operators but had not consulted tour operators. “Me, Majestic, Leisure Tours, they had no meeting with us. They made all kind of changes at the airport without us,” they said.

The operator said tour companies were now facing changes to their designated airport spaces without having been consulted. The tour operator also criticised the presence of livery vehicles in areas traditionally associated with other airport transportation providers, arguing that tour operators operate differently because their services are pre-arranged.

“I have no problem with them making money,” the operator said. “But when they want to come frig with me, they want to take away my space for them to hack on the door, take a space for me so they can showcase their car to be hacking, and they are there illegally. And we are legal. We are pre-arranged. We don’t go out there looking for jobs.”

The operator said tensions escalated after taxi drivers began parking in spaces designated for livery operators. “The taxi drivers came and parked in the livery spaces,” the operator said. “The livery drivers said they was going to park in whatever space available. And that’s when I call NAD and NAD called the police.”

The operator argued that the Government cannot make decisions involving airport transportation without consulting every category affected. “He had a meeting with the taxi drivers. He had a meeting with the livery, but he didn’t have a meeting with us,” the operator said of Mr Lundy.

“And so, the taxi drivers and the livery drivers are saying they’re taking space from us, and they doing this and whatever and so, how do you take space from the tour operators to give to livery drivers?”

The Ministry of Transport stressed that no changes to the existing rules should be assumed until formally agreed. “While negotiations continue, the existing rules remain in effect and will be enforced,” the Ministry said. “Disrupting services or creating disorder will not be tolerated.”

It warned that the dispute cannot be allowed to interfere with airport operations or damage the country’s tourism product. “LPIA is our primary international gateway, and disagreements cannot be allowed to impact the travelling public or our tourism product,” the Ministry said. “We remain committed to dialogue and finding a way forward, but until changes are agreed upon, the existing rules must be respected.”