HEADS of taxi associations — All Island United Route Taxi Association (AIRTA) and Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) — say they were not in support of a request to withdraw their services on Thursday in an effort to force the Government to grant a traffic ticket amnesty.

Head of the 200-driver AIRTA Raymond Bynes said his group would not take that route but prefers to seek an amiable settlement with the Government.

“I am not in favour of the move by the lobby groups. I am not a part of it, and I told my members not to take part,” said Bynes.

Egerton Newman said that the operators were anxious about the possibility of being arrested or having their licences suspended.

“Thousands of them want to pay. They’re not asking for favour not to pay, all they are saying is give us some time,” said Newman.

Last week Newman gave a promise to Jamaicans that he would refrain from withdrawing his group’s service to the general public as a means of protest, like on November 13, but will go the route of dialogue with stakeholders.

“We promise Jamaica and the travelling public that we will not go back to any such withdrawal of service. What we will do is continued dialogue with the Government to give us a payment plan so we can make our payment on outstanding tickets,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

On Thursday a voicenote purporting to be from the One Voice Association of Transport Investors and Operators called on cab drivers islandwide to withdraw their services, which, they believe, would force the Government to grant a traffic ticket amnesty.

Bynes said his association is working with rules and regulations set by the Government.

“I was not in agreement with the withdrawing of the tickets or any form of demonstration from the beginning. We just want to meet with the authorities and see if we can come up with a resolution of the traffic tickets situation,” he stated.

“But the taxis have to be aligned within some structure so that when the drivers act outside of the rules of the agreement we can pinpoint them. I am calling on those drivers to let them know that they cannot operate outside the law or else we can call in the owner of the vehicle and decide on a response,” the AIRTA head noted.

He said that he would like to see a route taxi system in which, if passenger walks out of the taxi and leave their valuable, even a pen, they can retrieve it from the driver or the owner.

“We need to speak with one voice. Right now we are the only legal route taxi association operating in the Half-Way-Tree, Maxfield Avenue, and most of the taxis operating there now are hackney vehicles parading as route taxis,” he said.

Bynes said that he is hoping that the Government agrees for them to return to the bargaining table with the taxi associations. However, he says that he will continue to support the Government’s rejection of lawlessness, the rogue cabbies, and their aggressors.

On November 14 several Corporate Area bus and taxi operators pulled their services in an attempt to force the Government to accede to their demands for a traffic ticket amnesty. Several sections of Clarendon and St James were also affected. At the time the TODSS president said operators had been trying for three months, without success, to persuade the Government to grant them “an amnesty” on outstanding traffic tickets, and, therefore, protest action was their only option.

That protest, like today’s, fizzled.