KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

With just days to go be­fore schools re­open, Route Two Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Bren­ton Knights says school maxi taxi con­ces­sion­aires have re­ceived more than $2 mil­lion to­wards out­stand­ing pay­ments, with more mon­ey ex­pect­ed in the com­ing week.

The de­vel­op­ment fol­lows a meet­ing yes­ter­day be­tween maxi taxi rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our, where sev­er­al out­stand­ing is­sues af­fect­ing op­er­a­tors were dis­cussed.

Knights said Za­k­our al­so in­di­cat­ed that fur­ther pay­ments would be made in the com­ing week, which should sub­stan­tial­ly re­duce the out­stand­ing bill of more than $10 mil­lion.

From Mon­day, maxi taxis will al­so be ex­empt from traf­fic re­stric­tions at five high­way over­pass­es, putting them on the same foot­ing as Pub­lic Trans­port Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion (PTSC) bus­es un­der the Traf­fic Con­trol (Over­pass­es) Or­der.

Guardian Me­dia ob­tained a copy of Le­gal No­tice No 666, the Traf­fic Con­trol (Over­pass­es) (Amend­ment) Or­der, 2026, which was made by Za­k­our un­der the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles and Road Traf­fic Act and comes in­to ef­fect on Mon­day.

The five lo­ca­tions are the Freeport and Chase Vil­lage over­pass­es along the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way, and the Munroe Road, Ca­roni and Grand Bazaar over­pass­es along the Uri­ah But­ler High­way.

Knights said the change will al­low maxi taxi op­er­a­tors to bet­ter serve pas­sen­gers at the af­fect­ed lo­ca­tions with­out com­muters hav­ing to cross the high­way to ac­cess trans­porta­tion.

The de­vel­op­ments come months af­ter maxi taxi op­er­a­tors staged a ma­jor three-day strike that dis­rupt­ed trav­el for thou­sands of com­muters as they pressed the Gov­ern­ment to ad­dress sev­er­al long­stand­ing con­cerns.

At the time, op­er­a­tors called for the high­way speed lim­it for maxi taxis to be in­creased from 65 km/h to 80 km/h and raised con­cerns sur­round­ing the trans­fer of Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route (PBR) and in­ter­ci­ty pass­es.

They al­so raised con­cerns about es­ca­lat­ing crime af­fect­ing op­er­a­tors and pas­sen­gers, il­le­gal PH taxi op­er­a­tions, up­grades to maxi taxi hubs and ter­mi­nals and the cre­ation of a sys­tem to al­low op­er­a­tors to make Na­tion­al In­sur­ance con­tri­bu­tions.

Fol­low­ing more than four hours of talks with Za­k­our dur­ing the strike, op­er­a­tors com­plained that while they had been able to air their con­cerns, they left with­out the firm com­mit­ments they had hoped to se­cure.

Za­k­our had asked op­er­a­tors for time to work on the mat­ters that fell with­in his Min­istry’s re­mit, while some of their oth­er con­cerns were re­ferred to oth­er gov­ern­ment min­istries.

Op­er­a­tors sub­se­quent­ly said they would give the Min­is­ter time but vowed to con­tin­ue press­ing their con­cerns and hold him ac­count­able if there was no progress.

Months lat­er, Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion sec­re­tary Vick­ash Kissoon­dath said op­er­a­tors have been in con­stant di­a­logue with Za­k­our through com­mit­tee meet­ings and be­lieve they are now in a bet­ter po­si­tion.

Re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia via What­sApp on Thurs­day, Kissoon­dath said, “We can tell you that we have been hav­ing con­stant di­a­logue with our line min­is­ter via our com­mit­tee meet­ings. We should have some is­sues re­solved and put in­to leg­is­la­tion where it’s ap­plic­a­ble. So, I would say that we are in a bet­ter po­si­tion.... We have things in mo­tion and we should be see­ing the fruits of our hard labour pret­ty soon.”

At­tempts to con­tact Za­k­our for com­ment on the de­vel­op­ments were un­suc­cess­ful up to press time.