A valuable contribution
published: Monday | November 22, 2004

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I AM responding to the statement made that 'Illegal taximen costing country millions'. The Government has provided us with a bus system that is most unreliable and if it was not for some of these same taximen, a lot of persons would lose their jobs due to tardiness. I can recall a lot of times when I had to stand at one bus stop for more than half of an hour waiting for a Jamaica Urban Transit Company bus. Now, tell me, isn't that ridiculous?

If it were not for the same taxis that are costing the country millions, I would not have reached home that evening. The bus system is 'slack' and people cannot rely on the system to get to where they are going on time or at all at times. Some of the taximen do not have a choice but to run 'robot' taxis, because the Government is not providing jobs for them. They have a little old car and they have insurance to pay; they have to buy gas; they have families to provide for and if they have their personal vehicles sitting at home doing nothing, then it's best to use the car and run taxi.

The Government makes it hard for them to obtain road licences and other documents to operate as legal taxis. This process takes money and lots of time. If it were not for some of these same taximen, the productive sector would not be what it is. Thanks to the reliability of the 'illegal taximen', people can get to work on time all the time and at the end of the day get home too. The Government needs to check on more critical stuff that is going on in the country.

I am, etc.,

CONCERNED CITIZEN