SCORES of taxi operators from the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Taxi Region (KMTR) on Wednesday took to the streets to protest against what they claimed were illegal traffic tickets issued to them by the police.

The taxi operators also voiced their disappointment with the decision to delay the 16 per cent fare increase which should have taken effect on April 1.

Among the taxi operators who took their grouse to the Radio Jamaica compound on Lyndhurst Road on Wednesday was founder of the New Kingston Owners and Operators association (NKOO), , who told the Jamaica Observer that most of their grievances come from police officers penalising them with illegal tickets.

On January 26, the Constitutional Court ruled that drivers and owners of motor vehicles who paid more than the required amount for traffic tickets between 2006 and 2021 are entitled to a refund of the excess.

But Nesbeth said this has not been the case, instead they are still paying for traffic tickets they have already paid.

“Drivers are still being dragged at the courthouse to pay these tickets, and it is causing a distress…We are asking them to please stop the injustice against the transport sector,” said Nesbeth.

He was supported by fellow taxi operator Barry Gordon, who displayed several receipts for traffic tickets that he says he has already paid, while alleging that he had to pay some for a second time.

“They called him to come in to pay the illegal ticket down at the Traffic Court for [parking at] the yellow painted sidewalk and he went in and paid. They sent it back on a printout and told him that he had to pay for the same ticket he had already paid for. [He] retracted the ticket number and… [tracked it] back… and it was the same ticket for Mr Gordon to come in and pay,” charged Nesbeth.

He argued that head of the police Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement, Gary McKenzie, said taxi operators would not be charged for stopping in areas which are designated no parking with the yellow paint on the sidewalk.

Efforts to contact McKenzie to verify this claim have so far been unsuccessful.

In the meantime, members of the NKOO told the Observer that the president of Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) Egeton Newman, and communications director and president of One Voice Transportation Group, Lorraine Finnikin, do not speak for them.

Newman and Finnikin are part of the Transport Operators Steering Committee which accepted the proposal from the Government to delay the fare increase and urged taxi operators to accept the decision without protest.

But the disgruntled taxi operators argued that the decision was unjust and should not have been accepted.

“It is unfair to ask us to bear that burden… every other business person in the country is reflecting their prices based on inflation, and it’s the same thing we’re asking,” said Nesbeth.

Last year, Minister of Transport Daryl Vaz announced a a 35 per cent fare increase for public transport operators to be implemented in two phases.

The first phase was a 19 per cent fare increase on October 15, 2023 and another 16 per cent at the start of this month.

But following a meeting, which included Vaz, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, the Transport Authority, and members of the Transport Operators Steering Committee, it was announced that the increase had been delayed to a yet to be determined date.

In asking the sector for a deferral of the rate increase, Clarke cited the need to maintain inflation in single digits in order to keep the economy on course.

He acknowledged the hardships faced by the sector and what a fare increase would mean for their operations but pointed out that the transportation sector has one of the largest impacts on inflation.

For his part, Vaz commended the operators for accepting the deferral and gave his commitment to continue to work with the operators to identify and agree on other incentives.

Vaz mandated the Transport Operators Steering Committee to meet and design a comprehensive transportation incentive framework which would include measures that would have less adverse impact on inflation.