Private taxis outlawed

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THE Road Traffic Authority (RTA) is corporatising privately-owned taxis into registered taxi companies as private taxi services are prohibited, says chief executive officer Nelson Terema.
Terema said due to public safety concerns the authority had advised taxi owners to arrange to integrate their taxies into registered and licensed taxi companies for proper coordination and monitoring by the RTA.
He said through corporatisation plan, taxi users would be protected and it would be easier to implement safety and other public transport related policies to improve the service.
He said it would also allow authorities to quickly trace and identify taxis involved in accidents or other incidents.
He said registered taxi companies had properly detailed and coloured taxies for clear identification while private taxies were not registered under the authority’s public transport section to provide services as they were registered under Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd (MVIL) as private vehicles and their business were deemed illegal.
Terema said privately-owned taxis were using fake number plates and allegedly sticking cab signs on top of their vehicles while on taxi business which police and RTA were aware of and would address.
“The drivers are smart and playing hide and seek (with the authority) and driving around and will soon be caught and dealt with,” he said.
Terema said Papua New Guineans who wanted to be involved in the taxi service business had to come to the public transport section of RTA to have their taxies registered and licensed and integrated into a registered taxi company.
He also urged the public to use properly registered and regulated taxis. A taxi owner Jimmy Amu said corporatisation was good in the long run but many drivers were not keen on the added costs involved.
“Drivers don’t want to use their money to register and pay a percentage of their weekly taking to company they are operating.”