The newly elected President of the BVI Taxi Association, Mr Karl ‘Dub’ Scatliffe, has said it is his personal view that protesting the Office of the Premier may not bring about the desired results needed to address the concerns of the taxi industry over the pulling of a number of calls to the Virgin Islands by cruise liners. Photo: VINO

Newly elected President of the BVI Taxi Association, Mr Karl ‘Dub’ Scatliffe, believes taxi operators are not recognized for the important role they play in the building and sustenance of the tourism and transportation industries in the Virgin Islands. Photo: VINO

“Us going and protesting the Government is not really helping us, it’s not helping us. We are not walking with any plans, we don’t have anything concrete… we want to be in on everything that they (government) are doing. We want to find out what their plans are and where we could fit in...”

Mr Scatiffe was at the time speaking exclusively with Virgin Islands News Online following his recent election to the helm of the BVI Taxi Association. He had previously held the position as President of the taxi association some six years ago and has always been a very active individual in the matters of the taxi industry for a very long time.

Responding to questions surrounding the escalated issue of Carnival Cruise Line not making calls to the Virgin Islands (VI) especially come 2015, Mr Scatliffe said “I think that the way we are going, we are not getting anything done… we really need to sit down and agree to disagree… I think the government will have the opportunity to listen to us and it will make a bigger impact that way. How it is going, everybody wanting to do their own thing, it’s not going to work that way….”

Asked specifically if he thinks the association should go ahead with the protest action initially planned, Mr Scatliffe responded, “Well that is something I wouldn’t speak about right now because everybody has their own idea on that so I think the best solution is for everyone to sit and discuss the situation and then I can give my own opinion.”

At the onset of the issue, a group of taxi associations’ members had audience with the Premier but had come out empty handed at the end of the day. They were heavily criticized in many sectors for not going ahead with the protest as many thought it would have sent a much stronger message for the government to take urgent corrective actions.

According to Scatliffe, all the presidents of the various taxi associations across the VI need to sit and ‘knock heads’ to devise a strategy as to how they can approach the government of the day in a manner that would see them coming out with something positive.

Goals of the new President

Speaking in general of some of his goals for the taxi association, Mr Scatliffe said he would be working alongside his members and other associations to ensure that taxi drivers get their rightful respect in the territory.

He said as is, taxi drivers get the 'bitter end of the rod' as they are not recognized for the important part they play in the building and sustenance of the tourism and transportation industries in the Virgin Islands.

According to Scatliffe, “I don’t think that the taxi drivers get enough respect for the work that they do. People think taxi driving is just a dead end job, so they don’t give you that respect, they want to treat you how they feel like.”

Bridging that gap between the various sectors, including the community level, is one of the main things he would wish to accomplish during his tenure. He said currently they are working on an initiative that would see then physically giving back to the community.

“But we are trying to start from within first, we are trying to clean up ourselves first, trying to see that everybody is up to date, the vehicles are up to date so when they call on us we will be ready for service,” Mr Scatliffe added.

He noted that currently he has a great supportive team of taxi operators and they have been divided into various committees to allow everyone to be involved in decision making and not a “one man party show”. He said it is the intention to make the BVI Taxi Association the ‘shining light’ for the other associations.