Thanks for the links. I read a little about this yesterday but had not seen the video. With a very low taxi license number like she had, she is either driving for someone else or it is possibly a victicious/stolen plate as they are up in the 500+ number range now.
Having a taxi driver friend of 30+ years (actually several of them), he has expressed concern with how many new taxi plates are issued and if the drivers are capable. It used to be most taxi drivers knew each other by their plate #, not so anymore as the number of them has ballooned in recent years. Throw in the "gypsy taxis" and you have even more of a problem.
It looked like at one point she was going by the Belair/Divi area. I have no idea where the people were supposed to be going. It also sounded like they had little or no knowledge of the island.
While it was a concerning experience, a free trip back does seem a little excessive.
JD--you obviously have a lot more info about this situation than I do, with your knowledge through Junior of the taxi situation. But like you said, something is wrong with the situation, where the number of the cab is that low. Perhaps she was a gypsy cab, which makes it even more unacceptable that she was at the airport. To me, I hope the result is that they do institute some minimum standards, as compared to just paying for the license to whatever politician will give it to them.
One can have a low number if it is in their family and passed from one driver to another. One driver I know is Taxi 57 and that was either his father's or grandfather's taxi number. Junior is Taxi 163 but when I first met him it was Taxi 127 as he was driving on another person's plate. I will give Junior a call and see if he has any input on this.
It looked like at one point she was going by the Belair/Divi area. I have no idea where the people were supposed to be going. It also sounded like they had little or no knowledge of the island.
On the video he said "10 Fig Shell Road" which doesn't seem to exist, but 10 Fig Shell Drive does exist in Guana Bay. So when she's driving past Belair she is headed back toward the airport. Sounds like a dangerous mix of uninformed tourist and undertrained taxi driver. Really weird that she wouldn't just take them back to the airport instead of driving around wasting more of her own time and not getting paid.
I thought we were goners on one trip to SXM. We were returning to the airport to go home when all of a sudden the taxi driver stops on a quiet street and is madder than heck. He accused us of stealing his phone, we both looked at each other and I said, no we did not, I don't recall seeing it. He opened the back and threw out our luggage and said get out. We got out and then he found his phone, it was under our luggage and he saw it when he ordered us out. He did apologize but I did see the relief in his demeanor and said no problem, hope his day is better now.
I am so sorry to read these posts. Just in my experience, as I always tell people. the taxi drivers of SXM are the best and friendliest in the Caribbean. They are so important to the tourism of the island. I can only hope that the government (for once at least) will work with the drivers to correct the problems before they get any worse.
From the Herald post :"there is currently no law or policy in place that allows the TEATT Ministry to revoke taxi and/or bus licences." Explains a lot about how this came to happen...
I just spoke with Junior about this. He said she was Haitian and he knew she spoke very little English. He said the low Taxi plate # was due to a previous owner turning it back in and then the number can be re-issued. He did say she was suspended for 30 days and supposedly has to take a couple of courses, including learning more English. He also thought the incident took place more than 2 weeks ago but Sept 2 is mentioned in the article. He was aware of it but said it has now blown up due to being on the internet.
Wow, if that was my daughter and her friends with this woman in the video, it would be a very scary situation. The cost of renting a vehicle has gone up so much, that her and her friends are thinking of just using cabs when they need to. Can anyone recommend a safe, honest cab to call. I would never want this to happen to them, lol
I would be very scared if something like this happened to me also. You can definitely call Wilfred Brooks, a sponsor here, or JD's friend, Junior Bruney. JD would need to post his contact info, as I don't know it.
"The cost of renting a vehicle has gone up so much," Not sure where they are getting their quotes but I haven't seen much increase over the last 5 years.
Not to turn this into "my guy is the best" thread. But Sax has always given us REALLY great rates. Get a map at the airport and don't keep anything in the car, and you'll be ok!! https://www.saxcarrental.com/
"The cost of renting a vehicle has gone up so much," Not sure where they are getting their quotes but I haven't seen much increase over the last 5 years.
We haven't either, but we've been renting from the same company for nearly 20 years. I know for a fact that the rate I pay is substantially less than what he charges new customers.
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