Taxis, mini-bus associations focus on members under arrest

Talks about the liberalisation of the mini-bus and white taxi sectors are expected to start on Thursday, a spokesman for the Transport Ministry told The Times.

Alfred Pace, from the White Taxis Licensed Amalgamated, said the organisations' efforts were focused on helping their members who are under arrest.

"We want to clear these people's names before entering into negotiations," Mr Pace said, adding that no proposals have yet been drawn up.

Charles Mercieca, from the Mini-buses Cooperative, also said the organisations were working to assist their arrested members, some of whom were officials of the associations. He would not elaborate, saying he did not want to jeopardise the negotiations.

The Transport Ministry spokesman said the parties will be discussing the modalities of liberalisation for the two sectors.

"We will be sharing our ideas on liberalisation with both organisations and going through the details of how this would work out for the benefit of consumers," he said, adding that the government would be doing its best to reach a consensus on how to implement liberalisation.

Talks were originally expected to be held last Friday - a day after the four-day nationwide public transport strike came to an end - but were postponed on the associations' request.

When contacted yesterday, Transport Federation head Victor Spiteri said the first step would be to determine what the market permitted and what the government meant by liberalisation.

"We believe competition already exists in the transport sector - apart from the scheduled routes. Consumers have a choice between red, white and blue mini-buses and between white, grey and black taxis," he argued.

Mr Spiteri said prices also varied and he accused the government of having made a hasty decision earlier this month when it decided to forge ahead with the liberalisation of the hearse sector.

The next round of talks will not include discussions with the Public Transport Association (ATP), which represents buses. The ministry spokesman said the government first needs to finalise its work on what it considers to be a bus network that fits today's needs.

"This must be a radical departure from the reality on the ground today, which was designed some 40 years ago and is far from relevant for today's needs.

"Once we complete this rather complex exercise - towards the end of this summer - we will start talks with the association on how to implement these objectives within the context of EU rules which demands from us that we choose between two general directions: either nationalise the service and retain it under government control or issue a competitive tender for anyone willing to deliver it," he said.

The government wanted to hear the ATP's views both on its objectives for a new bus network and eventually also on the best way to contract and commission the service.

Mr Spiteri - who also heads the buses' association - said drivers were worried that non-viable routes would be scrapped and asked what this would mean for bus-dependent consumers.