Taxi operators at the Bridgetown Port on Monday accused Uber and its franchise owner, Go Capita, of flouting a government restriction that prohibits Uber pick-ups around the Bridgetown Port, threatening the livelihoods of drivers and reigniting calls for stricter enforcement of taxi regulations.
The president of the Bridgetown Port Taxi Co-operative, Adrian Smiley Bayley, told a press conference at the co-operative’s headquarters that Prime Minister Mia Mottley had made the directive explicit during a recent meeting with taxi operators at Government Headquarters.
“Two Fridays ago, everyone sitting in this meeting who are taxi operators were at Government Headquarters. And the prime minister made it clear that no operators or Uber should be operating around the environs of the Bridgetown Port,” he said.
Bayley claimed that, despite the instruction, an Uber-registered driver was observed collecting passengers directly outside the Port gates last week.
“I have the pictures here,” he told reporters. “We have a dispatch system in the Port. Seventeen people got off a cruise ship last week. They were asked if they want a taxi. They said ‘No, we don’t want a taxi.’ They walked straight to the gate and an Uber taxi picked them up…. So call it six days after [the meeting with the prime minister].”
As a condition for operating in Barbados, Uber operates with registered taxis in Barbados as Uber Taxi, instead of with ordinary drivers and own cars.
During her address at the Barbados Labour Party’s 86th annual conference on October 25, Mottley declared that she had secured a public commitment from Uber Taxi to “stay out of the Bridgetown Port for the next winter season so that those who were building the domestic platform could have a fair chance to compete”.
An official report of the incident has been sent to Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, who is also minister of transport, said Bayley.
“That was forwarded to the deputy prime minister by me and I can safely say that when the dispatcher approached the people, I was called as president. I approached the people myself and they continued to walk through the gate and say that they don’t need any taxi in the Port. They will go and take their Uber taxi on the other side.”
Raymond Gill, a representative of Go Capita, said the company would investigate the complaint. “It’s supposed to be geo-fenced off unless something went wrong with the technology,” he said. “The agreement is that Uber should not work within the Port. So as the first I’m hearing, I will look into it for sure, because it’s not supposed to be that way.”
Barbados TODAY has reached out to the Ministry of Transport.
Bayley insisted that taxi operators would continue to speak out until a fair resolution is reached. “People in Barbados are not stupid,” he said. “This will not go away till we get some sort of level playing field. If we got to speak about this every day or if we got to drive around Barbados and get all the support from all the taxi operators in Barbados, I will do it.
“Today, we are making it clear. The government has spoken to Uber but I would like the pressure turned back on to the franchise owners who are operating in Barbados.”
He also accused Go Capita, operators of the Harbour Lights nightclub, of betraying long-standing partnerships with the taxi industry.
The Bridgetown Port taxi operators told reporters they have “pulled back” on pushing Harbour Lights as an attraction, declaring that taxi drivers felt excluded despite their decades-long support of the nightclub.
Bayley said Go Capita had been closely connected with Port, West Coast, and Accra taxi operators for many years, and that Harbour Lights had benefited greatly from that relationship. He noted that the collaboration dated back about 15 years, long before the Bay Street nightclub began catering to cruise ship passengers.
According to him, about 80 per cent of cruise visitors to Barbados sought to go to the beach, and before Carlisle Bay became popular, roughly 90 per cent of that work had been concentrated along the West Coast.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
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