Centre for Responsible Tourism, Goa

Times of India seems to be running a tirade against the taxi drivers….with everyday bringing at least 2 articles against the…..is there no other news in Goa at all?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Know-Your-Cabbie-if-you-need-to-get-around-in-Goa/articleshow/54859228.cms

In Goa, tourists and locals alike are forced to rely on either their familiarity with a taxi operator, or to hire the first, visible cab. With taxi operators in the state not allowing app-based cab services like Ola and Uber to enter the market, there is no other way to book your ride.

This system allows taxi owners to park in city lots, in the arrival and departure zones of the Goa international airport at Dabolim, outside resorts and any other territory they choose. Those looking for a cab, therefore, are usually left with no other option but to hire the taxi in sight.

And its not only tourists, but also locals, who have no other mode of booking a taxi, specially at odd hours. This allows taxi operators to dictate the terms, and the fares. Transport department officials themselves admit that there is no mechanism in place to keep a check on taxi operators who overcharge passengers.

Taxi owners occupying precious parking spaces in cities is yet another issue citizens are left to deal with.

“As per the permits issued, taxi drivers either need to have their own office to operate from or should operate from their homes. Otherwise, they can operate from a parking space leased out to them,” a state transport official said. Yet, taxi owners habitually park their vehicles where they wish, claiming that the terms of the permit themselves are faulty and they need to be visible if tourists are to approach them.

“As of now, we have never paid any rent for parking our vehicles,” member of the North Goa Tourist Taxi Association, Ravindra Vengurlekar, admits.

The ambiguity surrounding designated places for taxis to operate from results in the ugly, territorial clashes that Goa has been witnessing from time to time.

Cab operators, however, don’t seem to be concerned about the inconvenience caused to locals and tourists, who have to make do without a system that enables one to hire a cab at any hour through a simple phone call and sans any contacts with local cab owners.

Taxi owners have their own litany of complaints to counter the need for app- or internet-based, transparent cab services in Goa.

“The major problems faced by taxi operators are that agencies, which either own or have several vehicles registered with them, tend to take away the business of small-time taxi owners. Foreigners, too, operate taxi services with the help of some locals and this makes it extremely difficult to tame the illegality as they are not directly involved. Operating taxi businesses by agencies via the Internet without a physical presence, eats into the business of local service providers,” one taxi owner said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/When-Taxi-Services-Are-Uber-Unfare-Goa-may-lose-its-way/articleshow/54819908.cms

When 30-year-old Seema Kunde (name changed) fromMargao decided to take her elderly parents for a weekend break to a South Goa resort in February 2014, she had no idea what was in store.

“We travelled to the resort in my car and parked it in a lane reserved for guests outside the property. Soon after checking in, I received a call from the hotel staff asking me to come to the reception with my car papers. When I went, I was told to go to the taxi drivers camping outside the resort and show them the papers,” said Kunde, who said she was left to her own devices to prove to the taxi drivers that she is indeed a local using her own car and not a tourist using a local friend’s car for internal travel. Kunde, despite being a local resident, was left seething with anger and also fearful for the safety of her elderly parents and her self.

The anxiety caused is worse when a tourist is accosted in an unknown land.

Online travel portals and reviews for hotels across Goa on websites like TripAdvisor and GoIbibo are awash with first-person experiences of tourists who have similar horror stories to narrate.

“My friend told me that taxi prices are exorbitant in Goa and offered me his car. There were taxi drivers camping outside the resort I was staying in and the hotel staff who said we are expected to use taxis run by those drivers only. We didn’t do so, and later on, I found all four tyres of my friend’s car slashed,” posted a user.

Steep fares, helpless hotel staff and taxi drivers forcing hotel guests to hire their services are common themes in the posts that also mention the political backing taxi operators in Goa enjoy, which allows them to get away with their behaviour.

While hotel owners and other tourism-related businesses in Goa have time and again pointed to this menace as a problem causing a major dent in the state’s image as a tourist-friendly location, the government has failed to get taxi operators to comply with the fares it has fixed.

Every time there is a discussion regarding installation of digital meters, there are aggressive protests, holding the entire tourism industry to ransom. Though taxi operators have not opposed the installation of digital meters, they have laid down conditions to be fulfilled, like regulation of rent-a-vehicles. The rent-a-vehicle facilities provide cars for hire to people with valid driving licences who drive around by themselves and do not avail of drivers’ services.

“We are absolutely disgusted with the behaviour of the taxi operators. They are fleecing tourists who have suffered for long. We are now going to approach the high court. We want taxi operators to install digital meters as soon as possible,” said president of Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) Savio Messias.

“In no other state do tourists go and hire cars to drive themselves around. Then why do they do so only in Goa? Only 70 self-drive vehicles have valid permits to operate under the rent-a-vehicle model. But, there are over 8,000 such vehicles operating in Goa and most of them are given on rent illegally. Taxi operators running legal businesses are suffering because of this, even as businesses run by those without licences are flourishing. Some taxi drivers own just one vehicle and they are losing out on their livelihood,” said the general secretary of North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners’ Association, Vinayak Nanoskar, ruing that the government has failed to act despite their repeated pleas. He threatened that taxi operators will now take to the streets if the rent-a-vehicle businesses are not shut down permanently.

“Rent-a-car businesses have to be cracked down. We will not allow anyone to earn a living if our livelihood is not being protected by the state administration,” said Nanoskar.

Messias, on the other hand, dismissed Nanoskar’s claims that there are over 8,000 such cars plying in Goa. “We are aware of cases of taxi owners themselves renting out vehicles to tourists to drive around. We have cards of such taxi drivers to prove that they offer rent-a-vehicles outside of offering taxis,” said Messias.

Recently, following demands from the North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners’ Association, the regional transport office (RTO) had formed a flying squad to stop tourists from driving around in private vehicles without proper rent-a-car permit, and the squad has been fining owners and also seized a large number of cars.

The high court of Bombay at Goa had earlier declined to provide any relief to owners of private cars who have been renting out their vehicles to tourists without proper permits. The high court order had directed the transport department, the appropiate authority in this matter, to consider the applications within eight weeks and take a decision on whether to issue rent-a-car permits or not. This had sparked off tension in the North Goa beach belt with the flying squad being blocked by rent-a-car operators.

This is not a plain black and white issue. The media likes to paint the taxi drivers as villains. Not that all taxi drivers are innocent…however such a report is unfair as there are two sides to every story

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/How-the-taxi-lobby-has-taken-Goa-Tourism-hostage/articleshow/54819857.cms