COLOUR CODING OF TAXIS DEADLINE PASSES, MOST SERVICES NOW COMPLYING

The Deadline for all taxis to be painted in yellow was on Wednesday but some owners say that there are some difficulties causing them not to be able to fully comply with the mandate issued by Government in this year.

According to a dispatcher Mrs. Jocelyn Williams from Adrian’s Taxi Service operating in Georgetown, her taxi service has now begun color coding their cars. The woman explained that there are ten cars in the base and all has to be sprayed. However financing is something that is not easily available to spray all the cars at the same time. The dispatcher noted “we cannot afford to pull off all the cars from working, what kind of revenue we will get?” she questioned.

Mrs. Williams added that their cars are in excellent condition but to spray one of them costs $80,000. She however said that the taxi service has hired a sprayer to complete one car a week and all the cars are expected to be uniformed by the end of atleast the next two months.

Meanwhile Oasis Taxi Service too is faced by the same dilemma, Owner; Emsley Baptiste said

that his Service is faced with financial constraints which I staking the cars a long time to be color coded. He added that there were promises by the President to give concessions to Taxi Services wishing to comply however no word has come of this promise since. Baptiste noted that there was a promise “that taxi services owners will get free licence and registration for the cars for two years but this cannot compensate since the monetary value of the two are not balanced.”

To spray one of the cars, Baptiste said it will cost him $85,000 to $100,000 per car as cars that need body work, extra money will have to be spent. If the total of seventeen cars, seven has been colour coded. According to Baptiste, the other ten cars do not belong to the base and are contract cars.

He noted that the drivers of these vehicles have stated that they have commitments to the banks to pay for the vehicles and colour coding them is putting them under ‘strain’.
However, Baptiste underscoring the benefits of colour coding said more time was needed to comply.

Meanwhile Diplomatic Taxi Service operating out of Forsaw and Oronoque Streets Georgetown said that his Taxi service is making progress in getting the vehicles uniformed. According to the owner Abdul, his Taxi Service has 15 cars with several already colour coded. The man noted that his service is also affected by financial constraints experienced by the owners of the vehicles since most of them are contract vehicles. Abdul noted that if “some sort of financing is available then it would be much easier for Taxi Services to comply.”

Triple ‘S’ Taxi Service based at Philadelphia Street New Amsterdam Berbice related to the Guyana Times that the Service was in the process of now spraying the cars. Dispatcher, Lawrence Sooknanan related that following the decision by the President to have all the cars colour coded, the Taxi Service was unable to secure finance for all of the vehicles as they were in “bad shape.” the body work on the vehicles would have been too costly for the taxi base and as such, a new fleet of vehicles was acquired with them now Colour coding.

However inclement weather and the availability of a Sprayer have delayed the process, Sooknanan noted. This Taxi Service has seven cars in operation.
Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, in a telephone interview with Guyana Times said that his ministry will pronounce on the issue next week when a formal statement will be issued.

Rohee noted however that he as seen progress of colour coding in out of town areas “most cars out of town are going yellow.”
When asked about the concessions that were promised by President Jagdeo, Rohee said the ministry has to check on the concession needs before making any more public pronouncements on the issue.

November last year at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) President Jagdeo had outlined Government’s intention to have all motor vehicles plying the hire car trade painted the same colour by August this year.At that meeting a number of proposals were discussed including installation of meters to determine mileage and cost, uniform, installation of flex glass, no passengers in the front seat, installation of the service’s official logo and repainting all taxis in one common colour.

The agreed colour corporate yellow, applies only to taxi services and taxis associated with a service and not to owners of personal hire cars, mini-buses, and tapirs that are being used for public transportation.Owners of taxi services were advised that a waiver of fees for revenue licences, road service licences, certificate of fitness and radio spectrum will be granted for a two-year period but, the waiver is conditional to the fulfillment of the usual requirements by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

taken from Guyana Times