TAXI FOCUS
ary measure. Consequently, taxis that are not registered at the airport enter the airport area, uncontrolled, to pick up passengers. There are also private hire services available at the airport, but their oper- ations are not properly and strictly regulated. Many travellers don’t even know they exist or are afraid to use them. There is no notice at the airport which points to particular security personnel to contact in the event of being robbed by a taxi driver.
The writer suggests, “It is the opinion of many Ghanaians that our country needs a new airport. Notwithstanding the political changes that have taken place here, this need has become even greater now with our new status as an oil producing nation.
“A new airport [should] be built in such a way that security for travellers, workers etc. will be improved. There will be enough space for everybody. There will be enough space for clearly marked ‘airport taxis’ so that it is not the taxi drivers haggling with you, but officially approved taxis in a queue taking passengers in order as they come.
“This later suggestion can be employed even without a new airport. The taxi drivers’ unions will work closely with the airport authorities so that they will know departure and arrival times and be prepared. At the drop- off area, taxis shall not be allowed to mix with private cars, and passengers shall not be allowed to board taxis from this area. “A system must be put in place to register all taxis operating at the airport again and be issued with identity cards. The drivers in question must be restricted to a particular place and overseen by at least two security offi- cers. Anyone who needs a taxi must first contact a security officer who will in turn select a taxi driver for the newly arrived.” He finishes by asking: “Dear reader, what do you also suggest?” Some sort of legitimate taxi licensing regime overseen by the capital’s Town Hall wouldn’t go amiss...
from INDIA SMOKE-FREE TAXIS IN INDIA
Recently more than 50,000 taxi drivers in Mumbai (or Bombay, as some of our readers will know it ) have lent their support to the ‘Smoke Free Mum- bai’ campaign on World No Tobacco Day, and pledged to ensure that neither they nor their passengers would smoke in cabs. “Mumbai now joins several cities in the world that protect the health of their taxi drivers and that of their passengers, especially children who are in no position to object to exposure to second-hand smoke,” said Prakash Gupta, president of the Action Council against Tobacco in India. Quoting a recent survey held among the taxi drivers, Gupta said that in spite of the fact that nearly 80 per cent of taxi drivers are non-smokers, almost all were being exposed to second-hand smoke from their passen- gers.
“SFM is working towards reducing and completely eliminating this invol- untary and highly risky exposure of taxi drivers [to smoke] during their job hours,” he said. According to the survey by SFM, 79 per cent of taxi driv- ers are exposed to second-hand smoke daily, and 96 per cent felt that a law banning smoking in taxis would be useful. Only 14 per cent had ‘No Smoking’ stickers in their taxis.
The taxi drivers also pledged to display stickers informing passengers about anti-smoking laws and fines in English, Marathi and Hindi. The move was also supported by many large scale companies based in Mum- bai, some of which banned thousands of their employees from consuming tobacco at their work place on World No Tobacco Day.
from GREECE GREEK TAXIS STRIKE OVER AUSTERITY-INSPIRED REFORMS
Greek taxi drivers started a 48-hour strike on Monday 18 July in protest at moves to deregulate the number of licensed taxis in the country. They blocked roads near Athens International Airport and the port of Piraeus, wreaking havoc for tourists arriving in the country on holiday. The Greek government wants to cut the cost of a taxi licence from €80,000 to just €3,000, angering drivers who paid the higher price. “I sold proper- ty to buy the taxi because I didn’t have a job. I tell you, I am ready to give my life to keep these hooligans from taking the money that I have paid [for my licence],” Athens taxi operator Panagiotis Koutelias told Euronews.
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As part of the country’s regeneration plans, Greece is deregulating more than 135 business sectors and pro- fessions to improve competition and boost growth. The austerity-driven reforms were called for by Greece’s credi- tors, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, in return for bailout money for the country’s debt-laden economy. Tourism makes up 16 per cent of the country’s GDP and the government had projected a ten per cent hike in tourism revenues. The indefinite action by the taxi drivers could well force a revision of that estimate. Subsequently thousands of cab drivers in Athens took to the streets for a second day of protest, marching on Parliament and hoping to show the strength of their feelings to the transport minister. Their stoppage led to problems at ports and airports, delaying flights that had to wait for pas- sengers caught up in the disruption.
As part of the nationwide protest action, taxi drivers in Crete drove through Heraklion; also a group of drivers set fire to a taxi outside the prefecture, accusing government officials of being thieves.
Clear blue skies and soaring temperatures greeted holidaymakers at Crete, but they were forced to walk to their hotels trailing their luggage behind them. At a motorway toll station outside Athens, a sea of taxis blocked many of the lanes.
Then the Greek taxi owners launched a second week of strike action. Thymios Lyberopoulos, president of the Attica taxi owners’ union, said the strike would still continue indefinitely. Such protest action at the height of the holiday season has angered tour operators and Tourism Minister Pav- los Geroulanos, who said the action was damaging the country’s reputation abroad.
Threatened with arrest, the cab drivers have been gathering at road toll stations where they have been allowing cars to pass without paying. It would appear that Greece is between a rock and a hard place really: the tourism industry, so vital to the country’s economy, desperately needs hol- idaymakers to visit through the summer high season – but by the same token the government is hitting one of the very industries that provide cru- cial transport for those tourists, by imposing deregulation as a condition of receiving billions of euros in financial aid. You know what we say: watch this space!
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