Plea for cabbies to stay on roads despite virus traffic decline
Published:Wednesday | March 18, 2020 | 12:28 AM
With the Government of Jamaica advising citizens to stay home amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, president of the All-Island United Taxi Association, Raymond Bynes, said that his membership would still remain on the roads unless there is a complete shutdown of the country.
The head of the Kingston-based group said that even though ridership has plunged with fewer Jamaicans commuting, he has appealed to cabbies to turn up daily ready to work.
“I ask my taxi drivers to just stay and fight the battle because persons on the road still have to go to come and go home from work, so they have to travel, so I asked the drivers to stay and just ensure that they always sanitise,” Bynes said.
“... I tell them to stay unless the Transport Authority says otherwise or if the prime minister decides to do a total shutdown of the country.”
Karen Hall, a representative of Great Pond Taxi Association, said that since March 10 when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Jamaica, the number of cabbies on the St Ann route reporting for duty has dropped significantly.
“We are not doing well financially now. Normally, you would have taxis until you can’t even count coming out; now, you have maybe 10 or less coming out daily,” Hall told The Gleaner. “You can’t even tell them to come and bring sanitisers because you can’t even get any in the supermarkets.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that in a bid to curtail the spread of COVID-19, taxis would be required, effective today, to carry one fewer passenger than their licence allows.
Holness also ordered a ban on mass gatherings exceeding 20 people.