Authority eyes plan to guide use of taxi meter

By CLARISSA MOI
THE Road Traffic Authority is talking to the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) about transferring powers to the authority to enforce and manage the use of taxi meters.
Chief executive officer Nelson Terema told The National yesterday that the commission was in charge of the installation and enforcement of taxi meters. “They calibrate and make sure that taxis must operate with the taxi meter,” he said.
Terema said the function was delegated by to the commission under the old Motor Traffic Act 1950.
“So the ICCC is in charge of managing the taxi meter and the enforcement part of it,” he said.
Terema said a taxi licence would only be issued by the authority on the commission’s certification and the installation of the taxi meter.
“All taxi operators have to go to ICCC and obtain approval before coming to us for the processing of the taxi licence,” he said.
“If they don’t come with the approval, then we refer them back to ICCC.
“It is a requirement.”
Terema said they were aware of drivers charging passengers without using the taxi meter. “Taxi drivers and the general public using taxi are compromising each other and have been operating for some time.
“We are having some discussions with ICCC, for them to transfer the function back to RTA under the new Road Traffic Authority (RTA) Act 2014 so that we can perform that function. We are yet to finalise that.”