The taxi industry must pull together if it is to fight off new revenue draining Transportation proposals such as water taxis, limousines and shuttle services, industry leaders said last night.

If the industry continues to be fragmented to the detriment of the service offered, Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown cannot be faulted to for moving ahead on alternative proposals, The Royal Gazette was told.

"Everything that has been proposed takes money out of the pockets of drivers," said Bermuda Taxi Federation president Joe Brown last night.

And the lack of a public outcry against the proposals has been shocking, he added, given drivers have already been hard hit by a decimated tourism industry and economic downturn.

"It has been deafeningly quiet," Mr. Brown said.

However, Bermuda Industrial Union taxi service president Alaine Mouchette told The Royal Gazette she still hopes the majority of drivers will rally together to save the profession.

Mrs. Mouchette hopes drivers will realise that if they unite to one central dispatch system, there would be no need for many of the taxi-threatening proposals contained in the recently released Transport plan.

"One of the reasons we've been trying to organise taxi drivers if to avoid these things," Mrs. Mouchette said. "If we can organise more effectively there will be no need for these things but, now, we're still so fragmented, they can happen."

Under a central dispatch system, Mrs. Mouchette said, drivers would have access to all the business across the Island.

The three proposals in the new plan which directly affect the taxi industry are the possible introduction of water taxis, limousines and a shuttle bus service to hotels closest to the airport.

Mrs. Mouchette admitted the BIU had yet to hold a meeting to discuss the new proposals so she has only had limited feedback.

"I would guess a lot of people are not too happy though," she said.

Stopping some of the proposals is possible if drivers can embrace change, she said, while others - such as water taxis - are simply impractical.

"I don't think drivers would want to (switch to water taxis)," she said. "It would be very expensive and they would not get returns quickly."

Mrs. Mouchette said that while drivers at the airport are opposed to the short hop fares to hotels such as Grotto Bay, a central dispatch system could allow drivers to make these smaller trips while still maintaining position for additional airport fares.

"Most drivers don't want to wait in line for a $3 or $4 job but the central dispatch system could reward drivers for short runs but allowing them (to return to the airport) without having to go to the back of the line," she said.

"If we had hotel zones set up, it would encourage drivers to do short runs and they wouldn't think of them as lost opportunities.

"This is what we've been pushing to get."

A central dispatch system would also cut down on job stealing between drivers, added Mr. Brown.

Traditionally, stealing fares only happens during the leaner winter months, he said, but under one united service, this could not happen.

Mr. Brown said frustrated taxi users sometimes call a second or third dispatch after the first driver fails to arrive which is inefficient for everyone.

"We've been trying to explain that no one has to lose jobs if we move to one central dispatch," he said.

"It's amazing the drivers don't understand that if we had a central dispatch we wouldn't be talking about limousine services and shuttles."

Meanwhile, Mr. Brown suggested that of the four dispatch companies currently operating in Bermuda, only one service was operating at a profit.

"The others are deeply in the red," he said. "If they were operating in the States they would have gone Chapter 11 long ago. We're redundant."

While he is deeply against the new suggestions, Mr. Brown said the disorganised industry must accept some responsibility for the Minister raising the possible alternatives.

"The way I look at it, the Minister has his job to do," said Mr. Brown. "It's not too late but this may be getting to the point where decisions by the Minister will be forced."