The taxi and tour sector of St. Kitts is having problems. Many operators feel that they are being unfairly treated.
Let us take a look at the sector as it has evolved over the years.
Taxi and tour fares are governed by law. And nobody is allowed to sell or provide services for sums higher than the controlled fares.
Not too long after I became the Minister of Tourism in 1995, in response to a very passionate request by the taxi and tour operators, there was a fare increase.
However, notwithstanding the increase, operators were still selling their services below the set fares and undercutting each other seriously.
I chalked this up to competition and, even to some degree of desperation and determination by operators to ensure that they could put provide adequately for their families.
This drove me harder me to bring more opportunities, and more demand for their services, to the island.
Note that their competition was not just among themselves. It also included bus operators, and others to whom I will refer later.
I found something profoundly wrong with that, because buses are licensed and insured to provide a specific service and the taxi operators (who are also tour operators) are licensed and insured to provide another, very specific and very different service. In addition, the Ministry of Tourism played a role in the matter of quality control in the taxi and tour sector, but none in the bus sector.
I saw this as the taxi operators being cheated of their fair chance to make a living, especially given the seasonality and the narrowness of their field of work. (Yes, I knew that a few taxi drivers were ‘returning the favour’ and using their taxis as buses too. And that too was cheating).
Now, our taxi operators are expected to make their money in one of two ways. They either deal directly with their guests, or they contract with wholesalers.
An example of the former occurs when a taxi picks up guests at the airport, or at the Circus or elsewhere in an arrangement which is negotiated by themselves and their guests. And the guests pay them directly.
An example of the second is when taxis are contracted to carry guests on a tour organized from a cruise ship or a hotel. In such a case, the taxi operator is paid by the ship’s tour agent or by the hotel tour desk, as the case may be.
But whether the deal is a direct deal between operator and guest or it is arranged through a tour agent, the fare under the law must be the same, as far as I am aware. I do not know that the tour agent or other party has the legal authority to charge the guest a fare which is higher than that stipulated by law.
And, accordingly, any commission which the tour agent or other party is to get must be deducted from the stipulated fare, not added on to it, because the guest should not be made to pay a fare which is higher than that which is listed under the law.
The taxi operators can agree to the lower net fare to themselves because wholesale arrangements have been made on their behalf. To add to the fare so that a commission can be paid is cheating the guest.
But they cannot agree to a fare that is higher than that which the law prescribes.
We know that the cruise lines add premiums, and very large ones, onto the fares set in each island. That is one of their three major sources of revenue. Indeed, it is a critical reason why cruise lines send their ships to certain ports. They are in business to make as much money as they can. And they are very good at making money. Very good.
And if passengers are willing to pay the extra money on board because of the convenience or whatever else, then I have no problem with that, because a fare of a St. Kitts tour negotiated and agreed between ship and passenger on the high seas, outside of our jurisdiction, is not something over which we have any influence.
But that can work to the benefit of a destination, because passengers are generally aware of the fact that tours booked onboard are more expensive. That is why many of them prefer to make their own arrangements when they get ashore, and also why the majority of passengers do not go on onboard organized tours.
This means that a big opportunity is opened up for hundreds of thousands of passengers coming to St. Kitts each year to do their own thing, and an equal opportunity for our taxi operators make these passengers happy and to collect that extra money in the process.
This is significant, and not just for those passengers and for our taxi operators, but also for our entire economy.
Of course, the cruise lines are not at all happy when so many of their passengers seek out their own tour arrangements when they get ashore.
However, they have a problem, because if they ill-treat those passengers, especially given the fact that such passengers make up the majority, then the cruise lines could be out of business.
So they have to tread a very thin line.
And this is a situation which we all have to manage carefully. But it also represents an opportunity which we cannot and should not squander.
So that is the picture when bookings are done onboard.
It is different, in my opinion, when the entity booking the tour, and doing so at a fare higher than what is allowed by law, is within our jurisdiction.
I cannot see how they can be allowed to get away with it.
In the past, tours were provided by the taxi operators, but over the years, in addition to the encroachment of the buses, we have seen the same tour companies which booked the taxi operators for tours put their own vehicles on the road, cutting out the taxi operators.
In addition, we have seen a group calling themselves “tour vendors” coming into the picture, and we have seen other groups that are supposed to be in the business of very narrow and specific tours providing these services that were once reserved for our taxi operators.
And on top of all of that, there are also ‘pirate’ taxis on the road.
So instead of getting a bigger share of the cake, or at least a steady share of a bigger cake, the taxi operators have found themselves and their sector under relentless invasion.
To further exacerbate their hardships, over the past 6-9 months, we have seen an increase of 120 or so new operators to the sector.
Well, I have no problem at all with citizens getting opportunities to survive and to do well, especially people of lesser means economically, who are the ones that need special help, encouragement and support. So I wish all of our taxi operators, including the 120 newcomers, all of the very best.
And in wishing them well, I want to get back to the matter of the fares prescribed by law.
What I say below is not personal.
There is a store on Port Zante. As soon as passengers exit the Arrivals Building, the first thing they see is that store. It is not a part of any of the taxi Associations. But it sells the tours that are subject to the law, as I have been discussing here.
I understand that it sells those tours at prices above the prescribed fares, passes the passengers over to taxi and other operators, and takes the premium as its commission.
Of course, it is in business and the idea of that is to make money.
However, if this information is correct, then I have three questions:
(1) Is the proprietor breaking the law;
(2) Is there a limit to what he/she can charge the cruise passengers (and others) for these tours? and
(3) Is he/she potentially or actually damaging taxi operators’ chances of making a dollar because of the add-ons which are being inserted in the store’s pricing?
I have this further question:
If he/she is able to set up shop right there in front of the Arrivals Building at Port Zante to sell tours to cruise passengers (and others) that are purveyed by taxi operators, then why can’t a similar arrangement be made by the Government to locate the said taxi drivers (or their representatives) there or in the Arrivals Building itself, or right next to it, even if kiosk has to be erected (operating under carefully managed conditions) to sell their own tours, so that they can make more money and in the process provide a less expensive fare to the cruise passengers (and others)?
Wouldn’t this end a lot of the rancour and put the ball in their court, as we urge them to further and greater empowerment and responsibility as a sector? And wouldn’t it better assure one and all that the law is to be obeyed?
The writer is a former Minister of the ruling St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party and the current Parliamentary Representative of Constituency Number Two.
