The drivers that ply their private vehicles for hire, “Pulling Bull,” along the Guapo, Cap-de-Ville main road from Point Fortin to Cap-de-Ville must have gone mad. They have decided to increase the “taxi” fare for the Point Fortin to Cap-de –Ville, from three dollars to four dollars on the main road and an extra dollar to go inside. Trunk space thirty to thirty five dollars for the Christmas season they say.
Oh I almost forgot pulling bull is illegal still in Trinidad and Tobago so therefore persons who engage in illegal activity are, beautiful flowers, hell no they are criminals, right or wrong?
This is my problem, the increase in taxi fare one and this is what boils my water. Two, how can people who are conducting an illegal activity purport themselves to be a legal entity? You clowns cannot organize and have a “taxi” service. Have people in Trinidad gone mad?
The government has shirked its responsibility to provide access to all it citizens to reasonable transport while providing an opportunity for legal competition. Now the criminals are calling the shots while the legal taxi “H-Cars,” few they are, have to follow behind with their tails between their legs. One cannot verbalize all the inherent dangers of travelling with “P”-cars. No insurance coverage, no certificate of good character and no visible picture ID. The driver could be a card caring rapist, pervert and murderer and you would not know because there would have been nothing to mitigate such a situation. I think basically we are travelling with people who do not care about us; all they want is your money, so they choose not invest (and for the most part are not interested in investing) in being a legal taxi for hire.
Something has to be done. Some have started blocking the roads. A fire has to be lit, not a literal a fervent energy to encourage social change. What will it take to get the government attention, the attention of our member of parliament and the police to address this issue? What has the government done to encourage compliance with the law? What are they doing now? The answer to those questions is nothing. Now we have to react crank the juice.
Two wrongs don’t as they say make a right, but doing nothing as these criminals fester on our roads is just as bad or even worse. It is time for us to stand for something other than self.
A possible solution; government gives a one or two month amnesty to all those pulling bull, cancel all costs associated with acquiring an H license and pays for the medical all the interested party has to do is make the appointment with the licensing office, acquire a certificate of good character (accelerated tracing time due to dedicated personnel for that task) and pass all the relevant tests.
We have to do something, something NOW!
