East/West corridor commuters fed up with ‘short drop’ maxis

MEMBERS OF the travelling public from the East/West corridor are calling on the authorities to once again deal with the growing trend of “short drop” maxi-taxis on the Priority Bus Route (PBR), as passengers are forced to pay almost double the fare to reach Port-of-Spain. For more than five years, commuters have been complaining about maxi-taxi drivers reaching only Curepe and San Juan on early mornings. Some passengers said they usually have to leave home at 5 am in order to get a maxi-taxi for work on time. However, those passengers who come out between the hours of 6-8 am have to battle with large crowds, only to be told the maxis were going “short.”

Passenger Candace Simmons said that when one boards a maxi-taxi in Arima, the driver would say he is only going “short,” but still takes the normal fare of $5 which is supposed to carry a person to Port-of-Spain. On reaching Curepe, all the passengers must leave the maxi, which then spins around on the PBR and stops at the same area where the Arima passengers were dropped off minutes ago. Simmons said the driver would then say “straight to Port-of-Spain,” and passengers must pay the fare from Curepe to PoS which is $4. “You end up paying $9 instead of $5 from Arima to Port-of-Spain,” said Simmons.

Other passengers have complained that on evenings at City Gate, some maxi-taxis refuse to reach Arima, and would only go to San Juan, Five Rivers and Tunapuna. However, one driver who preferred to remain anonymous, said that on mornings it was not profitable to carry a trip from Arima to Port-of-Spain. He complained that heavy traffic on mornings also kept maxis from going into Port-of-Spain.  President of the Route II Maxi-Taxi Association, Victor George, said the association was not responsible for disciplining the drivers, but said the association does not condone the behaviour of the drivers.

George said he has asked repeatedly that large maxi-taxis work from Arima on mornings, so that passengers would not have a problem for transport. “If passengers wrote letters to the Ministry of Transport and give them the licence plate numbers of these maxis, then maybe it would help solve the problem,” said George. Transport Commissioner Nathaniel Douglas said the problem of “short drop” maxi-taxis was brought up at the last meeting of the transport board, where they all agreed that the situation was a delicate one.

Douglas said members of the law enforcement including police and licensing officers were working on it. “Our officers may have to do some undercover work in order to discover the drivers committing these offences,” said Douglas. Douglas has advised the Ministry of Works about the issuing of new PBR passes. “The next set of PBR passes should state where the vehicle is working from (Point A-B), once it leaves Arima with passengers,” said Douglas.