Taxi drivers have told a Tynwald committee that they fear their industry will be decimated by the advent of dial-a-ride.

Representatives from the taxi trade claimed they had been misled by the Department of Infrastructure over the demand-led minibus service and that the Road Transport Licensing Committee was ’conflicted’.

Cabbie Barry Murphy of the Manx Taxi Federation said: ’I’m more concerned about what will happen in the future. This is probably going to decimate our industry. This industry is hanging from a cliff edge.’

Chairman of the Manx Taxi Federation, Ray Teare, said: ’We were told this would be a trial period for the north of the island and at the end of the 12 months we would have the facts and figures.

’But since then Bus Vannin has jumped back in under the act and asked for a variation.’

Mr Teare said cabbies had a concern over the independence of the RTLC, with the DoI being its sponsoring department and its chairman also being the chairman of TravelWatch.

He said section 29 of Road Transport Act was designed for ply for hire and section 25 was intended for regular bus services. Bus Vannin had applied for its licence for dial-a-ride under section 25 but was now operating a pre-booked taxi service.

’That was never the intention of the legislation,’ he said.

The Federation’s Ian Maule said dial-a-ride differed in that the minibus can pick up at more than one place and charge a separate fare, which cannot be done on a private hire licence.

Mr Teare said section 25 of the Act states quite clearly a ’regular bus service’. ’Well is a person ringing up saying "can I have a bus at 7 in the morning?", is that part of section 25 regular bus services? No it is not.’ Mr Maule said taking this to a logical conclusion, there would be nothing stopping a minibus sitting at the airport and effectively being a private hire taxi.

Mr Murphy said he believed that the reason Bus Vannin had applied for dial-a-ride under section 25 was because they wanted it to be a taxi service and also have the capability to fall back on the bus route ’as and when it pleases’.

Airport

He explained his main business was ply for hire in Douglas but he also operated all-island pre-booked private hire. But he said in the last year his airport service had been ’wiped out’ with only one booking in the last six months.

The current ConnectPorts licence has a restriction stopping minibuses from picking up on the main bus route between Onchan and the south. But Mr Murphy predicted that in four months’ time Bus Vannin will apply for a full five-year licence without any restriction.

The committee heard procedures for objections to an application had changed.

Mr Teare recalled the first dial-a-ride application when the RTLC chairman said the taxi drivers would not be able to speak on their objection.

Challenged about this and his potential conflict given TravelWatch’s apparent support of the minibus trial, the chairman said he would close the meeting and call the police if members of the public didn’t leave. ’He was quite adamant,’ he said.