SEVERAL “PH” (private hire) and registered taxi drivers on the Morvant and San Juan taxi yesterday called for PH drivers to be regularised following the murder of 12-year-old Mercedez Layne.
Route 2 Maxi-Taxi Association president Brenton Knights yesterday called for regularisation of PH drivers during a phone interview with the Express.
“It should have been done a long time ago. We had the Andrea Bharatt issue. There was a national outcry. We are in pain again. We should not have to revert to that discussion again. It’s heartbreaking. Every time a tragedy like this happens, we come out complaining”
In January 2021, Bharatt, 22, a court clerk, entered what she thought was a taxi in Arima.
Her body was found a week later down a precipice in the Heights of Aripo.
Knights added: “Then it becomes a nine-day wonder. It opens old wounds again. I don’t mind sharing my ideas. It’s no ifs, buts or maybes—PH drivers should be regularised.”
Morvant PH axi driver Kern Warner speak with the Express on Independence Square, Port of Spain yesterday. Photo ISHMAEL SALANDY.
Also yesterday Morvant PH driver Kern Warner, who has been plying the route for 15 years, said: “They should regularise everybody. Give the PH drivers their taxi badges. It would take care of some of the problems in the system. Give everybody a fair playing field.”
Warner, a father of three, added: “It’s sad. It’s not nice to know what happened to Mercedez. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones. She did not deserve to die like that.”
On the San Juan taxi stand, taxi driver Samuel “Sam” Blades added: “They have been talking about regularising it since 2010. Since (then-Transport Minister) Jack Warner was in charge. Nothing has happened. You can’t stop the PH drivers.”
He pointed to the situation with PH drivers on Charlotte Street.
“Just look at what his happening there. There are clogging up the streets. They don’t care how they come out to work. How they dress. But what can you do? Everybody is making the same $6,” Blades said.
Fellow taxi driver Garvin Boynes said: “We have to pay everything. Insurance. They don’t get to pay anything. They should regularise them.” Both Blades and Boynes expressed their sadness about the murder of Mercedez.
“It’s not easy,” Blades said, shaking his head.
On Charlotte Street, PH driver Joel Peter said: “They should do something for the PH drivers. I think they should give us our own stand.”
Some commuters on the Morvant stand said the majority of drivers were PH and they also provide a “village” taxi service, which entails dropping commuters in front their doors. Commuters also pointed out that PH drivers were willing to drive to remote areas and adjust their fees to suit the passenger’s budget.
