“Customers can’t really afford any new fare increases”

– taxis, minibus operators admit

The Guyana Oil Company Limited (Guyoil) has increased its rates for fuel prices, but taxi and minibus drivers have expressed concern as to what this holds for them.
Taxi drivers, whose prices are higher than the bus fares charged, have related that if they should raise their prices any further, it would lessen the amount of customers they receive on a daily basis. The increased price for fuel will have to be met with their fares remaining unchanged.
“People ain’t want to pay if we raise the fare for a drop-off. If the gas price increase and we raise the fare from $500 to $600, they will not travel with us. So we taxi drivers does have to do through with the same thing all the time,” said an anonymous taxi driver.
“There’s nothing that I personally can do. The gas raise, I still have to work. We have to wait and see.”
However, minibus drivers have expressed that this is affecting them because their fares are way lower than those of taxis, while the distance is almost the same, or even much greater.
“The gas prices always going up, but we can’t raise the fare. The price for gas never decrease, it always increasing. Every time it increase, we still have to work with the same fare. We don’t really make much at the end of the day,” said a minibus driver.
Fuel prices were increased this week, and gasoline now retails at $204 per litre. Kerosene, which was priced at $130, is now $137 per litre; while diesel, which was $188, has now been increased to $204 per litre.