MINISTER of Home Affairs Mr. Clement Rohee and police representatives met yellow car taxi services at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) on Wednesday and discussed issues of interest related to the operations of taxis.

It was a follow-up to a previous discussion convened by President Bharrat Jagdeo and, during the Wednesday afternoon gathering, some of the same issues were raised.

They included that taxis should carry unique number plates; private cars registered in ‘P’ come under greater scrutiny by the police, with a view to discouraging them from operating as hire cars attached to taxi services; private cars registered in ‘P’ are discouraged from working at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri; it should be enforced that young persons below the age of 25 years should not be allowed to drive taxis and the Road Traffic Act should be amended to allow for markings for identification purposes.

The talks also concerned third party statements to be taken at scenes of accidents involving taxis; Police should consider allowing taxis to pick up and offload passengers at commercial banks to transact businesses; drivers should be retested in both theory and practical, prior to renewal of their licences; taxis should be allowed to share bus stops and assigned priority lanes at special public events.

Rohee told those in attendance that none of those issues were agreed on but aired at the last meeting, with a view to discussing with members and non-members of Guyana Taxi Service Association.

The parties also talked about vehicles imported with the manufacturers’ tint not prohibited on the streets but given a six months waiver, which must be renewed, by the ministry.

The yellow car operators also asked that taxis be equipped with the standard am/fm compact disc players and that they not be harassed by the police.

By the conclusion, some agreements were reached, as Police Traffic Chief Neil Semple and Rohee addressed several of the concerns, a release said, without elaborating.