DOZENS OF TAXI drivers from St. Catherine gathered outside the Transport Authority on Maxfield Avenue, St. Andrew, yesterday to demand that the authorities give them routes road licenses.
The cabbies say they were operating on hackney carriage licenses. However, when they are chartered, police often stop them claiming that they are operating contrary to their road licenses.
"Route is what we want, away with the hackney," the men shouted.
They say they do not like the hackney carriage system and want to be given route taxi licenses. They say they cannot deal with the police harassment when they run on some of the routes and so they want route licenses so they can operate legally.
"They seh there are too many route taxis but taxi man come offfa route and car crash, suh room deh pan di route dem," one of the drivers said.
The taxi men said they were also being harassed by police when they carry four passengers. "The law seh you can carry three a back and one a front, now dem a seh wi mus carry only two a back, dat caan work, how wi ago mek nuh money," one said.
The drivers, who were being watched closely by a few police officers during the course of the protest, say they will not stop protesting about the licensing system until something is done.
"We plan to protest until we get justice," one taxi man said. "If dem nuh gi wi justice, wi a rebel like the people dem a St. Thomas."
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