Daily earnings snatched from short drop hire car drivers

…as City Council turns park into vending area

Hire car drivers who ply the East Bank Demerara route via Ramp Road, Ruimveldt, Georgetown have suddenly been confronted with their car park, situated in the Stabroek Market Square, being modified to temporarily facilitate vendors who have been relocated there to facilitate rehabilitation of the wharf.
As such, the area has been barricaded since Tuesday, resulting in the hire car drivers being without a venue from which to operate. This publication caught up with some of the operators on Thursday, and Percival Etwaroo explained that the placement of vendors at their designated car park has seriously affected the livelihoods of over 45 operators.
He noted that, on Tuesday, when the drivers entered the Stabroek area to carry out their daily routines, they were confronted by barricades preventing them from entering their parking area.
“When we showed up for work on Tuesday morning, we found that the park was barricaded with metal mesh and poles. We cannot make any entry into the park. We don’t know where to operate from, and we were told that this was an act done by the Mayor and City Council,” Etwaroo said.
Another driver added, “We are faced with a problem over the last few days, in that

it’s affecting our operation on a daily basis. It is affecting us very miserably because we cannot work to get money to take home to our family.”
He said that prior to this incident, they were never notified of Council’s intentions to use the park to temporarily accommodate the vendors.
As such, all of the affected drivers are calling on the Council to find an area which they can utilise.
“We don’t know the reason for that. We were not notified in a way of a notice or any meeting or nothing whatsoever.
We don’t know what is going on, and we would like to know if anybody from the Mayor and City Council can come and tell us what is going on,” another distraught driver said. Meanwhile, Alan Rahman, who shared the same sentiments stated, “I think it’s blatant disrespect, not only to the drivers, but to the families of the drivers and the passengers. This should never be. We should learn to give instructions, give notification, and do what is necessary. On top of that, we are being harassed by the Police when we drop off and pick up (passengers) because there is no designated location to pick up or to set (them) down.”
The drivers have opined that since they cannot operate anymore, commuters would also be affected, since many would have to use a taxi to traverse the EBD area. This costs more money and increases their expenditure.
“I think it’s a very irresponsible move, and (shows) lack of respect from the general public, not just the drivers. Doing something like that…because many persons traverse that area, and the hire car drivers are the main movement that you have across the East Bank area. A lot of drivers have been there for years operating,” Girdharie Singh said.
The hire car drivers are requesting that the matter be looked into by Central Government, in order to facilitate a less impacting approach to addressing the situation.
“We don’t have a problem, but you cannot take out the public transportation operators to facilitate a few market vendors. I think that a more proper approach should be done on this issue, because you can find better accommodation for the few market vendors (instead of having) to displace so many hire cars,” another driver said.
The drivers are awaiting a response from City Council regarding the provision of an alternative space, so that they can continue operating at the park. Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Mayor and Town Clerk for a comment on the decision to leave the drivers out in the cold have proven futile.