By Garwin Davis,
Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
ANGRY TAXI drivers yesterday were in a tense stand-off with the police at the entrance of the Ocho Rios Pier as they vehemently protested being denied access to the cruise ship terminal to solicit business.
The potentially explosive situation, with many passengers waiting to disembark at one of Jamaica's premier cruise shipping ports, was eventually brought under control by the police who, with assistance from resort patrol officers, quickly asserted their authority. But there were some heated exchanges before the drivers finally dispersed.
The drivers were upset at being blocked from entering the cruise ship pier and they have vowed to continue pressing for access to the pier even if it means, according to one driver, "mashing up the entire cruise business".
"This doesn't make sense," said an angry Oliver Reid, taxi driver. "I am a Jamaica Tourist Board licensed operator who is being told that I cannot go through the gate. How else can I get business but to come on the premises? It would seem as if the authorities are forcing us to go and get involved in illegal activities because what they are doing is destroying us."
The Ocho Rios police maintain they are following directives from the Tourism Product Dev-elopment Company (TPDCo) in allowing authorised persons only on the pier.
They also claimed the taxi drivers, particularly those who do not belong to either of the two recognised tour companies, Maxi and JUTA, were constantly harassing passengers at the entrance to the pier, forcing many to return to the confines of their cruise ships in disgust.
"What we are doing is basically re-energising a system that has always been in place," said Deputy Supt. Rudolph Taylor of the Ocho Rios police station. "I am told most of the harassment that takes place in Ocho Rios is done at the pier and so it is in our best interests if that is kept under control."
DSP Taylor said there was a ticket system in place whereby only the drivers whose numbers were called were allowed on the pier. This practice, he said, had not been followed and police would now make sure that order was restored.
But Linton Church, president of Maxi Tours, said the police were being over-zealous in their approach. "Because of the present economic situation in the country, a lot of people have to resort to making a living from tourism, the only thing that seems to be working nowadays," he said. "If you tell them they cannot come to the pier to seek business, all you are doing is asking for trouble".
Mr. Church charged said port workers and officials were corrupting the system by garnering business for their private vehicles and those of their friends at the expense of other taxi drivers.
"They have first access to the tourists so they ensure they are dispatched to their personal vehicles that are being worked from the outside," he said. "The corruption that is taking place down here is so rampant it is impossible to maintain any form of order."
DSP Taylor said he could not speak to the charges brought by Mr. Church but that the police had a responsibility to ensure passengers were allowed the freedom to walk or choose a taxi without any hassle.
The Florida Caribbean Cruise Association several weeks ago conducted a two-day seminar with taxi drivers in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay aimed at minimising complaints of harassment and to address their treatment of visitors on arrival in the country.
