OPPOSITION Leader Bruce Golding says the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will regularise the route taxi system, starting with an amnesty for illegal taxis, if elected to form the Government next month.

Golding said that the JLP accepted that route taxis play a critical role in the transportation system, but that the system needed to be better managed to allow them to operate freely with proper insurance coverage for passengers in case of accidents.

“We recognise the critical service that those taxis are providing and what we want to do is to make everybody legal. Bring them into the system, let them provide the service and let people go ’bout their business,” he said.

The Opposition leader was addressing thousands of supporters packed into the square in Spaldings, Clarendon on Sunday night, following an all-day tour of the northern Clarendon constituencies with the party’s candidates.

“The whole taxi business is not being properly managed, and Mike Henry (candidate for Central Clarendon) and I are working on a whole brand new approach, a whole new policy to deal with the taxis,” Golding said.

“One of the things that we recognise, and we accept, is that the taximen are not nuisances, they are performing a critical function and they are giving an important service to the people of Jamaica,” he said.

However, he said that the taximen had brought two critical problems affecting them to the attention of the JLP. The first being the issuing of road licences which, he said, would be speeded up for operators with proper insurance and vehicles in good working condition.

“Once you have insurance and once your vehicle is in good condition, when the time comes for review, you pay your money, get the inspection of the vehicle, show them your insurance paper. They must stamp your licence and give it to you same time mek you go ’bout your business’,” Golding said.

He said that in terms of the unlicensed or “robot” operators, they could not be allowed to operate without licences and endanger the safety of commuters. But, at the same time, he said commuters should not be deprived of the service they are giving.

“So what we propose to do is that once we take over, we are going to declare an amnesty period. And we are going to say to all the robots, don’t feel no way, come forward, fill out the form,” he said.

However, he pointed out that this wouldn’t mean that they would be able to run the same routes they operate on.

“We going have to say to you, ‘look, that route pack up already, you can’t run on that route, but this route over here needs some taxis, so go over there’. We are going to rationalise the system,” Golding said.

Other speakers at the meeting included spokesman on finance and the public service, Audley Shaw; MPs Pearnel Charles, Mike Henry and Ernie Smith and candidates Laurie Broderick (North Clarendon), Sally Porteous (Central Manchester), Joel Williams (South-West Clarendon) and Michael Stern (North-West Clarendon).