07 Apr 2016

In efforts to fight taxi piracy in Francistown, the Department of Road Traffic and Safety has introduced branding for all licenced taxis.

In an interview with BOPA, DRTS Northern regional manager Mr Patrick Motlhanka revealed that issues of taxi piracy remain a concern as there are some taxis that continue to operate unlicenced.

“We continue to impound taxis that unlawfully operate here. Some taxis were permitted to operate at Tonota, Mandunyane and other areas. 

However some of these taxi operators still come over to pirate some of the routes here in Francistown,” he said.

Mr Motlhanka said the strategy to brand local taxis is to make efforts to be able to identify and deter pirating taxis, noting that all local taxis should bear the brand ‘Francistown Taxi Services.’

He said the contacts alone that are usually written on the sides of a taxi are not enough to provide adequate identification, expressing hope that the brand will help in terms of route identification.Mr Motlhanka indicated that frequent inspection will be conducted so as to verify if taxi owners follow routes stipulated in permits.

This is meant to curb illegal operators who cheat by operating in routes not stipulated in route permit.

Furthermore Mr Motlhanka said they are aware of the congestion at the taxi rank, adding that they are working closely with the management of Francistown City Council to come up with a long lasting solution.

For his part, the taxi rank marshal of Selepa route, Mr Godfrey Ndlovu hailed the branding as a good initiative that will bring  positive results within the taxi industry.

Mr Ndlovu said taxi piracy has negatively affected them as they have to queue all day long with fewer customers.

He noted that pirating taxis have no specific route to follow, as such they keep pirating other routes. “Pirating taxis never come to queue here in the taxi rank, rather they have a tendency to pick up customers while they are on their way to the bus rank. This makes it difficult for us to make profits because we take long to receive customers,” he said.

Mr Ndlovu lamented that pirating taxis are bad for the customers as those who happen to lose belongings in taxis fail to recover their goods as it becomes difficult to track illegal taxi operators.

He further highlighted that though the strategy was newly introduced a good number of taxi operators have branded their cars. Ends