Taxi operators, who want their licences changed from hackney carriage, to allow them to operate as route taxis, demonstrate in Spanish Town on Thursday.

Spanish Town-based Hackney carriage operators, claiming their cars are being seized by transport inspectors, want the Transport Authority to change their licences to allow them to operate as route taxis.

"They went to the Transport Authority and got the red plates. Now they are taking away their cars and telling them that they must run on charter. All they are asking for is to change to route taxis," said Colin Manning, the president of the National Association of Taxi Operators.

Manning was on hand Thursday to show solidarity with the protesting taxi drivers, who withdrew their services and parked their vehicles in single file outside the Spanish Town Prison Oval. The action caused delays for commuters in the Angels Estate, Dam Head, Eltham, Kitson Town and John's Road areas.

The protest was orderly with the placard-bearing protesters demanding that their colleagues park their cars and join the protest.

"We want route taxi license, no JUTC bus don't operate in the areas where we run. We tired to go to court and pay big fine. All we a do is try make a living," one of the taxi drivers shouted.

Over 200 hackney carriage operators do business in Spanish Town, Manning said.

Hackney Carriage operators must, under law, offer charter services and can be fined and their vehicles seized if they are caught offering route taxi services for which a different licence is granted.

Joan Fletcher, the executive director of the Transport Authority, told the Observer this week that her agency had suspended the issuing of hackney carriage licences, pending the outcome of a survey by its research unit to determine whether there are already sufficient taxis with hackney carriage licences on the roads.

A number of taximen, the authority said, had applied for hackney carriage licences, but were using them to operate as route taxis, in contravention of the Road Traffic Law.

Minister Grange tours new BBC studios

Guinness Sounds of Greatness creating a dancehall for everyone

Tarrus Riley shoots video for Start Anew