The Port of Spain/ San Fernando Taxi Drivers' Association has decided against implementing a proposal to hike the fare from $15 one way to $18.
Association President Hayden Whiskey and treasurer Rodney Douglas confirmed this after the association met last Saturday on the issue.
Consideration of the issue follows Government's price hike on super gasoline and diesel in the 2016 Budget. Finance Minister Colm Imbert put T&T on notice that following consultations with sectors of the society on the economic way forward, more information on how Government would proceed would come in Government's mid-year review in March. Since then taxi fares have been increased in some parts of T&T.
The POS-SFTDA members had been examining a proposal to hike the one way fare to $18. But at last Saturday's meeting, there was no agreement on this since some members wanted to wait until government's mid-year review to see what plans Government had. At last Saturday's meeting, there was a vote on the issue among POS/SFTDA members and the majority of members voted against increasing the fare to $18.
Whiskey said the fare hike was postponed "indefinitely," as some drivers were against it at this time. But he felt the fare hike was necessary since the fare hasn't been increased since 2008.
"It's necessary. It should have been increased before the Budget since we've upgraded our fleet in the last few years and not passed these cost on to the consumers and our maintenance costs have increased. Foreign-used parts costs have also increased by 50 per cent. So I don't support a fare increase simply because of the gas price hike recently since there have been many aspects which made a fare increase necessary before this. Our cost of doing business has gone up very much in recent years."
Whiskey said there were some drivers who didn't attend meetings, but were against the fare hike: "So I don't know when we'll be able to do it."
Douglas, who also said members agreed to hold their hand on the matter, added: "I don't know if later anything will be done, but it's obvious we may have to increase the fare even if it's by $1 or $2 at some point.
"I don't know if we'll decide on something before March or December, but the fare hike to $18 is off for now."
POS/SF driver Andre Morrison, said some members like himself felt it was too early to inflict a fare hike like $18 on the travelling public.
He said some members didn't even want to hike the cost by 50 cents at this point until more light on the economic situation came in March.