00:00President of the Route 2 Maxi Taxi Drivers Association, Brenton Knights, says school transport operators are owed millions of dollars
00:07for services already provided.
00:09He told the TV6 that concessionaires met on Thursday at the Public Transport Service Corporation to address the issue of
00:17outstanding payments.
00:18It came to our attention yesterday that they are in a situation where they have a lot of money owed
00:24to them, over $10 million owed to them.
00:28And the situation is very untenable in the sense of they have a contract that is very, I don't want
00:34to use the word oppressive, but let me say a little suppressing in terms of what you would really look
00:41for in a modern times of a contract.
00:44Knight says more than 160 drivers have gone unpaid for several months, despite continuing to transport school children daily under
00:52contracts with the Ministry of Education through the Public Transport Service Corporation.
00:57He adds that the delays have persisted over time, with areas continuing to build.
01:02It's a recurring door, or a recurring situation where it's a revolving door, in the sense that last year they
01:09paid some monies, in terms of paid up some fortnights, a couple fortnights, but they did not clear off the
01:16whole of last year.
01:17And hence the reason that they didn't clear off the whole of last year, and we are in the fourth
01:21month of the year, the money accumulated back again to over $10 million.
01:25Drivers had initially planned to withdraw services next week, but that action has been postponed following discussions with Maxi Taxi
01:34Association leaders.
01:35The Association of Maxi Taxi President, Mr. Ian Hewitt, asked them to hold their hand for one week, so that
01:41we could work out the scenario, and get some movements in terms of release of payments, and also revisiting that
01:48contract seriously, to get a contract that is more in keeping with the modern times.
01:55The Association is now calling for both immediate payment of outstanding funds, and a review of existing contracts, as drivers
02:03hope for a swift and favorable outcome from the government.
02:06This month is a very important month, so if we're using the energy of school concessionaires, now is test time,
02:17exam time, right, for the government, and the test papers are in to be marked.
02:22We will hope that coming out from at least the route to Maxi Taxi fraternity, that the consensus will be
02:30a passing grade.
02:31It will be very unfortunate that if the consensus coming out from the Route 2 Maxi Taxi Association, that the
02:38marking on the paper is ungradable.
02:40Drivers says they are giving the authorities a limited time to respond before deciding on their next course of action.
02:48We, in the Association of Maxi Taxi, we try not to emulate Mr. Donald Trump by giving extension after extension
02:56after extension.
02:57We ask the drivers and them to hold their hand for one week, so that we could get something resolved.
03:03We will see how it goes from there.
03:05Charlotte Kisto, TV6 News.
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