Plans to lift a restriction on dial-a-ride services have prompted scores of objections from cabbies.

ConnectPorts was launched as a 12-month trial in October with minibuses collecting passengers from their homes and taking them to the airport, and connecting with return flights at the end of the day.

Initially operating only in the north, it was extended to customers in Peel, St John’s and Baldrine this month before covering the south by the end of this year and the whole island from February.

But cabbies claim they are losing trade from the state-run service which they have dubbed Taxi Vannin.

Bus Vannin wants to remove a restriction from its ConnectPorts licence that carves out an exclusion zone.

This exclusion prevents minibuses picking up passengers on a narrow corridor along the main road to the airport between Onchan and Douglas.

By its own evidence to the Road Transport Licensing Committee, Bus Vannin accepted that the main road to the airport was already adequately served by the regular bus service on routes 1, 11, 12 and 12A.

More than 30 objections have been received, all from the taxi trade, to Bus Vannin’s application. Objectors were invited to attend a preliminary hearing at the RTLC on Friday last week.

Cabbies point out that Bus Vannin had 21 days to appeal against the RTLC’s condition but chose not to and they say that the service has only been running a couple of months so there has not been enough time to judge whether the restriction should be lifted.

For its part, Bus Vannin say they have increased the frequency of routes 1, 11, 12 and 12A from every 20 minutes to every 15, but there are still passengers who would prefer to use the dial-a-ride service.

Private hire driver Bryan Rogers has questioned whether the financial case for dial-a-ride stacks up, given 500 passengers were carried in the first couple of months.

He said this worked out at a taking of less than £3 a day for the fleet of 28 minibuses before operational costs including salaries, fuel, vehicle services and depreciation are deducted.

’How can this be justified when we can’t fund the hospital, are making cuts to public services to balance the state pension,’ he said.

In a letter to Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan, Mr Rogers wrote: ’How in the public interest is it reasonable for the government to set up a taxi service, that is in direct competition with the private sector?

’Previous to this debacle, the public were being served very well by the existing services of Bus Vannin and the privately-owned taxis island-wide. With support from Treasury, Bus Vannin are unfairly competing with the private sector and will put people out of work.’

This month, Bus Vannin launched a second dial-a-ride service, ConnectVillages, linking the villages of Andreas, Bride and Maughold with Ramsey. This service is about social inclusion and is not expected to make a profit.

But Mr Rogers believes ConnectVillages will destroy the taxi trade in the north of the island.

Dial-a-ride began as a extension to Bus Vannin’s patient transfer service which began in July with minibuses transporting people to the airport for off-island healthcare appointments.

Subsequently, a licence was granted to allow the minibus to take paying passengers.

The RTLC will consider Bus Vannin’s application at a hearing next month, with a decision expected shortly after.