By Prior Beharry
MAXI Taxi operators in Tobago claim they are owed close to $400,000 by a cruise ship agent.
But while the agent Charles Carvalho admits to owing them money he said it is not so much.
President of the Tobago Maxi Taxi Association Cloyd Williams said that the operators were owed for 12 cruise ships and that amounted to just over $380,000.
Carvalho, who is in Florida at a cruise conference, the maxi operators had a motive.
He said, “They have a motive and what they have done simply shows that they cannot handle the volume of business on the island of Tobago.
“They have been calling for more ships and now they are getting it, they don’t have the capability or capacity to handle the volume of new business.
“It’s time that the cruise industry moves away from the regulatory process on the port where we must use ‘taxi’ association, this business has moved beyond taxis for servicing the shore excursions from the cruise ships.
“Trinidad and Tobago is the only destination currently where we must use a taxi operator to service the industry, they simply don’t understand the industry and many cruise destinations have well advanced the needs of the ships where operators like us hire coach bus companies, not a taxi driver.
“If Tobago doesn’t come up to the growing needs of the cruise industry, we can simply take the ships elsewhere.”
Carvalho said that cruise ships usually pay 45 to 60 days after each call and this was how the industry works.
Williams said that the association had an arrangement with Carvalho to pay them seven days after a ship leaves port.
Carvalho said this was a 40-year-old agreement that does not apply in the cruise industry today.
He said as the agent, he has other people to pay such as tour guides and suppliers and the taxi operators will get their money within 45 to 60 days after the ships docked.
