The Bahamas’ largest group representing taxi operators is pushing for a new audience with the nation’s top leader to break a months-long deadlock over unaddressed worker demands, including a long-sought fare hike to offset skyrocketing operational and fuel costs. Leaders of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union say they have exhausted all standard channels of communication with Transport Minister Leon Lundy, who has failed to respond to repeated requests for negotiations six months after the union first tabled its proposal for fare adjustments.
Union president Tyrone Butler laid out the full scope of the impasse in comments to reporters this week, explaining that even a previously scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis was cut short before key issues could be debated. That September 18 meeting ended abruptly when the prime minister was called away to attend the funeral of former Cabinet minister Neville Wisdom, leaving the union’s full list of grievances undiscussed. Following the truncated session, the union submitted a formal document outlining all its concerns to Davis’ office, and received word last week that the file had been forwarded to Lundy for review and action. To date, Butler says, the union has still not received any formal response from the transport minister.
“Nothing has changed, unfortunately,” Butler stated. “We did have a brief meeting with the Prime Minister to express our displeasure and discuss the lack of cooperation coming from the minister, and even that hasn’t really yielded much success.”
At the core of the union’s economic demands is a proposal for a minimum $5 increase on the majority of standard taxi fares, a adjustment the group says is necessary to counter decades-high inflation and the rising cost of fuel, which climbed again earlier this month. Esso dealers confirmed that gasoline prices are set to rise from $7.06 to $7.50 per gallon, marking yet another jump in operating costs for drivers who cover their own fuel expenses. Butler noted that the group is open to flexible negotiations, including smaller incremental increases if the government cannot accommodate the full $5 proposal right away. Unlike the fixed-rate public bus system, taxi fares in the Bahamas are variable based on travel distance and destination, meaning a broad adjustment would impact most common routes.
Butler argued that a permanent adjustment is warranted given the current trajectory of living costs, adding that even a temporary increase would likely need to be made permanent given how long it has been since the last industry-wide update. The most recent fare change came in early 2024, when then Minister of Energy and Transport JoBeth Coleby-Davis announced a 10% increase for New Providence operators, the first adjustment the group had received since 2017. That revised rate structure was officially gazetted in March and formally announced to the public the following month after multi-party negotiations between the government, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association, and the union.
Beyond the fare hike, the union has raised a series of serious complaints about the Road Traffic Department, alleging that agency officers have systematically harassed taxi drivers through arbitrary penalties that violate established disciplinary protocols. Butler claims that rather than issuing formal citations and referring alleged violations to the office of the transport controller for review, officers have been issuing immediate financial penalties for minor infractions including purported dress code violations. The department has also changed vehicle age certification requirements, forcing drivers to pay for new mandatory documentation before their existing certificates are set to expire, adding unnecessary out-of-pocket costs for workers, according to Butler.
He detailed one particularly egregious incident to illustrate the pattern of abuse, where a taxi driver lost more than $300 in fare revenue after an officer confronted him at the cruise port over his footwear immediately after he returned from a tourist tour. When the driver asked for just a few minutes to finish collecting payment from his passengers before addressing the alleged violation, Butler claims the officer directly told the tourists not to pay the driver, prompting the entire group to leave without settling their bill. When asked if existing traffic regulations permitted the officer to take this action, Butler responded: “That’s something he made up of his own.”
Butler doubled down on criticism of Minister Lundy’s leadership, saying the minister has repeatedly failed to honor commitments he made during earlier discussions with the union. “Right now, as it is, I have a letter in front of me that I’m going to send over to his office again, but looks like sending letters and making requests and making phone calls really doesn’t matter,” he said.
The union’s current priority is to schedule a full, uninterrupted meeting with Prime Minister Davis to resolve all outstanding issues before committing to any further action. Butler emphasized that negotiated settlement remains the union’s preferred path forward, but he did not rule out the possibility of widespread industrial action if the group continues to be ignored by government officials. “The union is not going to be silent forever,” he warned.