Maxi taxi drivers at City Gate in Port-of-Spain are complaining that the facility’s management has failed to put proper measures in place to them and their passengers from contracting COVID-19 due to haphazard safety protocols at the hub.
“You talking about 18 months in a pandemic and nothing has been done, we just setting a wildfire… Mr Gooding and them like they sleeping on the job together with the minister,” red band maxi taxi driver Brenton Knights told Guardian media during a visit there last week.
Speaking on behalf of some of the drivers gathered there last Thursday, Knights said the hub, where thousands of commuters flock daily seeking transportation to the East-West Corridor, Central and South Trinidad has no signage with COVID-19 guidelines, no sanitisation stations or even a thermometer for temperature checks. He said there is also no one appointed to ensure people wear masks and social distance while entering the loading bay.
“No protocols whatsoever and we serious about fighting COVID-19 in this country? … and the Delta variant is here!” he said in a concerned tone.
He said over 20 of his colleagues have tested positive for the disease so far and some of them did not survive.
On July 3, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said 5,000 vaccines had been allocated for maxi taxi drivers as he announced the opening of six mass vaccination sites.
Unlike the members of the Taxi Drivers’ Association headed by Adrian Acosta, who are vaccine hesitant, Knights said his colleagues are open to getting the vaccine and many of them already have. He said the drivers try to do what they can inside their vehicles to protect themselves and their passengers but he believes the persuasion should start in the hub. He noted they sometimes have to instruct several passengers to put on their masks and social distance.
The drivers said the hub also needs to be regularly sanitised.
“You know how much people touch that pole and railing,” Knights pointed out.
But president of the Route Two Maxi Taxi Association Linus Phillip said some of what Knights and his colleagues are asking for will not work at City Gate.
“How you putting (sic) sanitisation stations in City Gate … you can’t put washbasin on the bay, that makes no sense because nobody coming to City Gate to take a maxi standing up to wash their hands, you will have a while pile up on the bay … and on top of that you putting thing for vagrants and pipers and all kind of thing,” Phillip said.
Phillip also questioned how temperature checks will be implemented at the hub and said mask-wearing outside of their maxis is not their responsibility but that of the police.
“This is just a building you (sic) walking into, it’s an open space,” Phillip said.
Frustrated with the situation, Knights said they wrote to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with their COVID-19 concerns, as well as other health and safety issues.
Some of the other issues highlighted by the drivers were:
• ↓Improper traffic control where maxis entering and PTSC buses exiting cross paths;
• ↓No proper traffic control for maxis and pedestrians eg: speed bumps;
• No clearly marked muster point;
• No fire hydrants;
• ↓No toxicology report to determine exhaust emissions from maxi taxi engines.
Phillip said he agreed with these concerns and noted that it was a managerial issue.
“It’s not a COVID issue, we have problems in City Gate that needs fixing…we have no have management in City Gate since 2010,” he said.
An investigation has been launched by OSHA, which has given the Public Transport Service Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago, which is responsible for the management of the hub, until August 20 to respond.
In a response to questions on the complaint by the maxi taxi drivers from Guardian Media, the corporation said it had received the correspondence from OSHA regarding the reported unsafe conditions at the City Gate Maxi Taxi bay and action will be taken to provide the information requested.
