Officials crack down on unlicensed taxi drivers

The lack of a proper docking facility in Belize City is not the only problem facing cruise tourism. Today it was the question and qualifications for tour guides and taxi drivers that created a buzz.

Over half of the Tourist Village Taxi Drivers Union Transfer Service members were barred from working in the area today because they have not met the qualifications for carrying tourists. According to Raymond Sheppard, the Belize City Council’s Tourism and Small Business Initiative Officer, they are not looking to putting anyone out of a job but are simply enforcing a law meant to raise industry standards.

Raymond Sheppard, Initiative officer, Tourism and Small Business, CITCO
“You cannot just be a taxi driver; you must be a licensed tour guide, that is the law.”

According to Sheppard since he started working late last year he has been advising taxi drivers that come September First, 2007 all of them should have a tour guide license. The deadline was extended to November First to give union members time to complete their tour guide training but some did not finish the course or even enrol.

Raymond Sheppard
“We have done everything we possibly could to embrace all these people; embrace to the extent that the law allows and that is you must be a licensed tour guide to operate in this industry.”

The licensed tour guides are also expected to become certified members of one body, The United Tour Union that has been in operation since the interception of the tourism village According to Sheppard, the effort is part of a plan of action undertaken to improve the image of the old capital following concerns from the Florida Cruise Ship Association. The situation was discussed recently with executives of the F.C.C.A.

Raymond Sheppard
“The executives have made it very clear to us that in fact they want to work with us but there are certain standards which we must meet. The B.T.B. regulation clearly dictates what those standards are and those are the minimum standards and so we are now we are trying to comply with the regulation.”

John Pollard, President, Tourist Village taxi Union Transfer Service
“So now fi I to tell the other forty-five personnel there is no space it will become a problem, it will become a problem. I could only hold back as much as I could hold back but at the end of the day these personnel here need to eat.”

According to licensed tour guide John Pollard and president of the Tourist Village Taxi Drivers Union Transfer Service, the group has been around since March, 2005 but it was only in March of 2007 that they received a letter from the Belize City Council informing them that their members must also be licensed tour guides. Pollard says while he accepts the plan to have all taxi drivers certified as tour guides it is still not fair for those no longer allowed to operate in the zone.

John Pollard
“These personnel here need to eat and I can’t give them nothing fi eat because I deh out di work here as per normal like everybody else. I have my family to take care of so I need fi eat myself.

“We are here to work with City Council because if you noticed they might look pan some of di faces but we are not no violent personnel out here. We just deh ya fi justice.”

Those taxi drivers who were not allowed to operate within the tourism zone tried to get jobs from outside the restricted area. The licensed tour guides of both unions used the system where their names were listed and called as passengers required their services.

Raymond Sheppard
“In order for us to protect this industry we too as a City Council and all the operators out here must do our part to help to protect this industry; as it is we are destroying it.”

While there were some noise around the area things generally remained calm as the day’s operation was conducted in an orderly fashion.