Coming Soon, Electric Taxis, Uber Style
As the mayor explained earlier, the electric vehicles that the City Council has purchased will be offered to the Belize City taxi associations on a lease to own basis. Today, the Council had two of the vehicles on display, with another two expected to join the fleet in the coming weeks. Mayor Wagner told reporters that City Hall is taking the lead in introducing eco-friendly forms of transportation that should result in bigger profit margins for the taxi drivers who lease them. And for the people who use the service, they will be able to use an app on their phones to access taxi services.
Bernard Wagner
Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City
“It’s locally built, Mi Driva app which will be used to really track how these vehicles are running all over the city. The people who want to access these taxis will be able to go on their phone app, get the Mi Driva app, tell the driver pick me up at this spot. It comes, pick you up drop you off to where you go. It will also play a big role and we were talking to the Minister of Tourism who is very excited about this venture because many times we have the overnight tourists who come to believe city and many times they have nowhere to go. They would want to go on the entertainment strip, but the hotel is Biltmore and they’re a bit wary about moving and not knowing how they’ll get back. Having the app on their phones, similar to what is there in the United States- Uber. We’re excited about these E-taxis, which is a compliment to the e buses. We want to see this integrated into the system. We have a target association and we want to work with the downtown Battlefield Park Association and once we are able to get these four off the ground, it’s now your own. We go to another association and we continuously build the system out so that eventually in Belize City, you’ll see gone are the ice make vehicles, but they’re being replaced with E-taxis, E-mobility, electric vehicles which really guarantee the lowering of congestion in the city. It will lower pollution in the city. You’ll have a much more reliable, effective and efficient type of public transportation. This is an opportunity to really have a better return. If you are running on electric man, you will be able to make much more rather than the fuel, the gas – which you are crying about the gas prices. So now, if we are going electric, that means your return on investment more than likely should be a bit more palatable.”
