Cab Drivers Flout AMA's Uniform Directive

A directive by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to all taxi drivers in the metropolis to wear special uniforms with effect from yesterday has been flatly flouted by the drivers. When the Times went round parts of the city yesterday, none of the taxi drivers were in the sea-blue shirts and blue-black trousers prescribed by the Assembly.
The special identification number that was to be embossed on all taxi cabs after payment of ¢250,000 was also missing from the taxis. The uniform and the car identification numbers are to make the cabbies easily identifiable especially during the country’s Golden Jubilee celebration, the AMA says. The Public Relations Department of the AMA in a statement issued last Friday said: "From Monday, February 5, 2007, taxi drivers will be expected to report at the AMA office where they will pay ¢250,000 for an embossment as well as the yearly taxi operating license fee of ¢35,000.
"All drivers who report at the AMA headoffice for the payment of the embossment fee must be in the prescribed uniform of sea-blue shirt and blue-black trousers," the statement further directed. Speaking to the Times, the president of the Adabraka Cooperative Transport Society, Edward Hoffmann, said AMA officials were at their place last month to brief the association’s members on the directive but did not tell them where and when to go to register.
"As at now, we are waiting for the AMA to tell us where to go and register," he added. Mr. Hoffmann said, the ¢250,000 embossment fee the taxi drivers are expected to pay is too much and must be reconsidered. He said if the exercise is to succeed, then a lot is expected from the AMA in terms of information flow to the taxi drivers. Mr. Hoffmann was of the view that the enforcement of the directive might have some difficulties as taxis from other parts of the country outside the metropolis will be operating into the area.
The AMA, he said, should have collaborated first with other districts, municipal, and metropolitan assemblies before coming out with the directive to make it more widespread and effective. At the Ministries Taxi Rank, some drivers who spoke to the Times said they were aware of the directive but did not know where to go for the registration and special identification numbers.