MARGAO
The bugle seemed to have been sounded ahead of the tourism season along Salcete’s coastal belt as the tourist taxi owners, eking a living on tourist taxi operations, see red over the app-based taxi aggregator’s repeated bid to encroach into the taxi business of the locals inhabiting the coast.
In fact, entry of app-based taxi aggregators is no music to the ears of the tourist taxi owners operating outside the resorts and hotels dotting along Salcete’s coastline. On the contrary, they fear that the taxi aggregators would displace the locals from their business and open the gates for the entry of outsiders in the tourist taxi operations.
If one goes by the warning held out by the Benaulim MLA, Venzy Viegas, who has taken up cudgels for the tourist taxi operators from Salcete coastal belt, the tourist taxi owners aren’t going to sit idle and watch the taxi aggregators encroaching into their fiefdom to ferry the hotel guests right under their nose, leaving them high and dry. “We will all join our tourist taxi operators to stage protests and demonstrations if the government and the taxi aggregators do not see reason and allow the traditional operators to eke a living in their area of operations,” warned MLA Venzy.
He added: “The local tourist taxi operators have no issue if the taxi aggregators conduct the general taxi business. They only want the taxi aggregators not to collect the guests from the hotels since they eke a living on these guests and this is the only source of livelihood for their families.”
The local tourist taxi operators have been up in arms since the introduction of the GoaMiles tax service, repeatedly coming face to face with the app-based taxi operator, for collecting guests from the hotels right under their nose.
Says President of Benaulim Tourist Taxi Owners Association, Humbert Rodrigues: “How will the tourist taxi owners and their families survive if the app-based taxi operators take away the guests from the hotels. We wait in a queue outside the hotels for days together, hoping to get business to ferry a guest. If the app-based taxis take away the hotel guests, how would we earn a livelihood.”
Dismissing allegations of overcharging of customers, Humbert says this canard is being spread by vested interests to paint the tourist taxi owners in bad light. “The guests are being charged as per the fares fixed by the hotels. Where’s the question of overcharging. This is just a propaganda unleashed by vested interests,” he said.
With a host of app-based taxi aggregators waiting to make forays into the taxi service in the State, post-commissioning of the Mopa airport, the local tourist taxi operators fear that a stage may come when they would be in no position to repay the loans, leave alone making a living on the taxi business.
Benaulim Tourism Taxi Owners Association secretary Roque Fernandes said the tourist taxi owners have invested heavily into high-end vehicles as per the requirements of the hotels and resorts. “Many a tourist taxi operator has gone in for high-end vehicles to meet the requirement of the resorts and hotels. The monthly installment itself runs into thousands of rupees. The tourist taxi operators will be unable to repay the loan if the app-based taxi aggregators take away the customers from the hotels,” Roque said.
Tourist taxi operators fear that any encroachment in their tourist taxi business may force many an owner to shut shop and head abroad for employment.
