South taxi drivers have mixed views on running at full capacity

Public transport returned to full passenger capacity on Monday, but not all taxi drivers in south Trinidad felt comfortable working at full capacity.

Newsday visited taxi stands on High Street, San Fernando, on Monday and spoke with several taxi drivers, who shared mixed views.

At the Gasparillo taxi stand, Daniel Ramdass told Newsday he didn’t think increasing public-transport capacity was a wise decision.

Ramdass explained, “Really and truly, I am not operating at 100 per cent, because it not making sense to me and I am not ready for that.

“I dealing with all the passengers, and it have many times I have to stop and put out people because they are not wearing their masks.”

At the San Fernando-Chaguanas taxi stand, Rawle Cyrus said he wanted to give commuters time to adjust to the increased capacity.

He told Newsday, “It feels great and it’s about time we are allowed to full up.

"But I haven’t started yet, because some people have gotten accustomed to the space. I holding on for the while until more people get familiar.”

Azard Mohammed works the same route as Cyrus, but feels differently about the Prime Minister’s decision to increase their passenger capacity. He thinks it was long overdue.

He added, “We feeling real good after two years with a pay cut…it feeling real good. I had no reservations, and I am staying at my 100 per cent.”

While Mohammed was talking to Newsday, another driver exclaimed, “We can now afford something a little extra. Before we used to just buy biscuit, now we can buy biscuit with cheese or cake and ice cream.”

La Romaine taxi driver Ray John told Newsday commuters should not be complacent about their working at full capacity.

John said, “People wanted the easing of restrictions, so this is part of it. The Prime Minister did a great job by giving us back 100 per cent.

“Some passengers have a problem with it, but law is law. When you go in a store you can do six feet apart, but you can’t do that in a car.”

None of the drivers Newsday spoke to said there was any consideration of reducing fares, given that the cost of living has risen during the pandemic and they have been running at significant financial losses for quite some time.