Call to crack down on unlawful taxis
THE president of the Nasinu Taxi Association, Shiva Shankaran, has called for stringent measures to be put in place for private vehicles.
He said with the 50 per cent capacity restriction most of those in groups of three or more would opt to go into private vehicles causing them to lose out on their business.
Mr Shankaran added for example if there were three people from the same family they would have to make two trips because taxidrivers were only allowed to have two passengers.
“The third person would have to hire another taxi to go, the passengers are affected as they would have to pay more basically,” he said.
“If all three of the passengers can’t come into the taxi then they won’t get in, they would say either allow three passengers or they would get out.
“We have a lot of problems but I have told them that, that is the policy because of the virus that we have so we can’t do much.
“When we look at the virus it’s spreading very fast in Fiji, in particular the Suva and Nausori corridor so we have got to think about that.”
Mr Shankaran said the private cars would take in passengers if the taxis weren’t able to because of the number.
“If there are three people standing looking for a taxi, it’s the private cars that would usually come and take them.
“So in this case the private cars are taking advantage of the situation.”
He said they had received reports from Makoi and Laucala Beach in regards to this situation.
“So there is no control and this is another problem coming in.
“If the restriction is for only two people in the taxi the same restriction should be for private cars so that they don’t take advantage of the taxi business.”
He said the situation was very bad for taxidrivers as some of them were getting $14 to $15 of income a day.
Members had told Mr Shankaran they would not be able to cope for much longer should this second wave of the virus persist.
“So they have negotiated with the owners to give in $14 or $10 or whatever it is.
“The drivers also want to make and take some money home, so if they take $20 home how would they run their expenses.
“Some drivers have handed their keys into their owners and they have gone into other avenues of making money.”
There were around 45 taxidrivers within the Nasinu Taxi Association.