Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown wishes to clarify that he will not be attending tonight's meeting at the BIU on the taxi industry as suggested in yesterday's paper.

The taxi industry has been urged by BIU boss Derrick Burgess and hotel head John Harvey to sign up for a new dispatching system.

Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown is to detail the plan to drivers and owners at a meeting tomorrow night.

Mr. Burgess said a failure to sign up for the central dispatching service (CDS), which tracks each vehicle with a global positioning system, would set the tourist industry back further.

He said: "Our objective is to put confidence back into the industry for our visitors and our guests. The taxi dispatch system is designed to do that -- to assist the drivers and passengers.

"This system is designed to show where every driver is. It's designed to know where the work is. All the driver has to do is press a button and they can find out what zone the work is in.

"This prevents `stretching' where a driver says he's two minutes away when in fact he's 20 minutes away. With the central dispatch system you can't do that.'' The union is to pay setting up costs but cab drivers will have to fork out between $900-$2,000 to install the system in their vehicles.

"This is something we will be discussing with the owners on Thursday night,'' said Mr. Burgess. "And certainly with the driver-owners at a later meeting in February. We would like to have it fully running on or before July 1.

He said the system would help stop cabbies stealing jobs off each other.

"When a taxi is dispatched the information only goes out to that cab so that can't happen,'' said Mr. Burgess.

"And where you have drivers waiting at the airport for 30 minutes or an hour waiting for a fare because the flights are late the CDS can let cars know if the flight is going to be late, how late it's going to be and how many people will be on the flight.

"Our hotels are improving, we want to be the Rolls Royce of tourism and be back to the standards we once had. We have to bring the taxis along with that.'' Asked what would happen if the industry boycotted the system, Mr. Burgess said: "Then we don't go forward, we take a step back in the tourism industry.

"We want to be number one, everyone's got to play a part, not only the hoteliers. The taxis also.'' Asked about the large costs of installing the systems Mr. Burgess said the new system would enhance the bottom line for companies. And he said Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown was meeting with the industry on that issue.

He said it would not give the union a monopoly on the taxi industry.

He said: "We have met with all the dispatchers. They can all have equal shares. The union can walk away tomorrow. But we are here in the interests of the worker and the industry and Bermuda. People have got to look at it this way. They have the opportunity to be equal shareholders.'' Chief Executive of the Bermuda Hotel Association John Harvey said there was huge reconstruction work going on with the Island's hotels and urged drivers to get on board with the project.

"Only last year we met with the taxi operators on the need for us to have a better transportation system.

"Some of the negatives we have been getting are around this issue of transportation. Some guests have been stranded and have had to use private cars to get to the airport. We are pleased now efforts are being made to cause all of Bermuda to head in the right direction. Wherever you go in the world as a tourist transportation is so vital.''