June 22, 2011Dear Sir,Please allow me some space to express my absolute disguste towards our Taxi Industry at large. Last evening I went out on the town with a few of my fellow Bermudians. We ate at a local resturant, we drank at a few local bars, and when it came time for us to go home there were no taxis to be seen. As my friends and I are responsible adults and knowing that we would be drinking, we left our personal transportation at home.But like idiots we sat on Front Street, along with 30 or 40-plus tourists, waiting for taxis. The taxis that did appear quickly turned their lights off and sped past (empty).The question that I would like to pose is to our Tourism & Transportation Ministers: “What are you going to do about this?"I'm no lawyer, but I do believe that we already have legislation in place that dictates that each taxi must operate 16 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days a year. I also understand that the Public Transportation Board checks these taxis based on the print-outs of the taxis' fare meters. This method is obviously not working! I can give you a simple example of how the taxi operators have beaten the system for all of these years ... they do not turn off the meter when they park their cars at night! This allows them to trick the PTB into thinking that the taxi was working all night long.My suggestion is this ... Require all taxis to have the GPS that has already been legislated. GPS can not only track where a car is, but it can also record when the engine is running, how fast the car is going, how long a car has been parked with its' engine turned off, etc...Have the GPS reports downloaded at TCB as part of the annual license renewal. Any car that fails to have the information readily available fails and their permit can be put up for sale (there are only 600 allowed in Bermuda, right?) We can also mandate that taxi drivers must pay Social Insurance Tax based on the fares that they "claim" they are making. This will ensure that locals will remain responsible when going "out on the town" and that tourists will have immediate access to taxis (that are supposed to be on the road anyway).I understand that it is not all taxi operators that are the problem, but a few spoil it for the bunch. If we are so desperate to provide a better product, then let’s start fresh & new.JUST A SUGGESTIONPembroke