Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Maxi and taxi op­er­a­tors are com­plain­ing that many of them are un­able to meet their fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions, leav­ing many of them hid­ing from fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions and some los­ing their ve­hi­cles to fore­clo­sure.

The op­er­a­tors have blamed their hard­ship square­ly on the COVID-19 Pub­lic Health reg­u­la­tions which al­lows them on­ly to car­ry a 50 per cent pas­sen­ger ca­pac­i­ty.

While most op­er­a­tors un­der­stand the reg­u­la­tion due to the pan­dem­ic, many are fac­ing the re­al­i­ty of the hard­ship as pro­ject­ed in­comes have de­clined.

Since the pan­dem­ic, pub­lic trans­porta­tion was af­fect­ed as pas­sen­ger ca­pac­i­ty was a method to curb the spread of the virus.

In May 2021, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley de­crease maxi and taxi to 50 per cent ca­pac­i­ty from 75 per cent due to spike in COVID 19 cas­es

Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Taxi Dri­vers Net­work Adri­an Acos­ta told Guardian Me­dia they are faced with many chal­lenges.

He said the coun­try is be­ing faced with a pan­dem­ic and they re­spect that, but they are los­ing their liveli­hood and many op­er­a­tors are suf­fer­ing.

He said, “Peo­ple can't pay their bills some peo­ple who are work­ing as dri­vers for car own­ers have to give up the ve­hi­cles be­cause they can’t pay the monies to the own­ers and the banks are seiz­ing cars from peo­ple”, he said “it dif­fi­cult out­side here”

Grants were es­tab­lished through the Min­istry of Fi­nance to as­sist the maxi and taxi op­er­a­tors, but they say many have not ben­e­fit­ed due to many op­er­a­tors not be­ing able to ful­fil the re­quire­ments to ac­cess the ben­e­fits.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said last month that his min­istry is cur­rent­ly work­ing to ex­tend the fu­el grant to taxi op­er­a­tors.

Just last month, Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan hand­ed out grants to maxi-taxi op­er­a­tors, to help off­set the loss­es be­ing in­curred from op­er­at­ing at 50 per cent pas­sen­ger ca­pac­i­ty.

“These guys can't con­tin­ue, a lot of these guys are hid­ing their max­is from the banks”, pres­i­dent of the Route 1 Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion Eon He­witt said.

He­witt said de­spite the grants many are fac­ing hard­ships and it's not just ve­hi­cles peo­ple are al­so be­ing faced with ar­rears for homes and oth­er things.

He said dri­vers op­er­a­tors know it's a pan­dem­ic, but he be­lieves there must be con­sul­ta­tion

He said, “It is all good for us to sit down on one side and say we want this and that, and the Gov­ern­ment on the oth­er side and say­ing there is no mon­ey, It does not make sense, this is why you need your line min­is­ter to have a con­ver­sa­tion and com­ing out of that you can meet a com­mon goal.”

Since the re­duc­tion many taxis and maxi op­er­a­tors are seek­ing al­ter­na­tives to gen­er­ate in­come.

Pres­i­dent of Route 2 Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion Li­nus Phillip said it is hard to know that "your ex­pect­ed in­come is not com­ing in to pay your bills."

He said banks have been try­ing to as­sist with de­fer­rals and oth­er meth­ods due to the pan­dem­ic but not all op­er­a­tors will fit that cri­te­ria.

“The bank giv­ing de­fer­rals and giv­ing what have you and giv­ing things to dif­fer­ent peo­ple based on their own in­di­vid­ual po­si­tion, Re­mem­ber to the bank is of­fer­ing to for you to come in and talk to them plus they are giv­ing de­fer­rals, but every­one has their dif­fer­ent po­si­tion and those who don’t fit in­to any of the cri­te­ria are the ones who fall through cracks’, Phillip said