The Transport Authority (TA) will be revising the requirements for the licensing of public passenger vehicles, according to Minister of Transport and Mining Audley Shaw.

Shaw said the change is to ensure “better screening” and assessment of driving capabilities, adding that he has started discussions with the TA and the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) “to see this through”.

“The transport sector is a critical one, and our operators must perform with the utmost integrity, and provide quality service,” Minister Shaw said, while delivering the keynote address at the recent fifth anniversary celebrations of 876 On The Go taxi service, held at the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, in St Andrew.

He told the company to continue to empower their drivers, so that the “taxi business becomes professionalised, profitable, and sustainable, with stakeholders benefiting in the total value chain of the industry, and with passengers at the epicentre of the business”.

The minister informed that the Road Safety Unit (RSU) in the ministry is conducting sessions in schools, to encourage a culture of good driving practice, and the visits and other activities by the RSU are about “educating our future” on the importance of road safety and to ensure that they “become the change after we hang up our keys”.

He also highlighted that the ministry is moving with several other initiatives to make the traffic environment safer and will be going forward with plans to offer rewarding incentives, to not only acknowledge those who have been exemplary leaders in the sector, but to encourage others to do good, and what is right.

The minister said companies like 876 On The Go taxi service must be commended for “inculcating safety” at all levels, which is “demonstrated” on the roads by their drivers.