KINGSTON, Jamaica  – Sixteen newly certified route taxi associations from across the island were on Wednesday urged to lobby for the interests and monitor the performance of their members as the Government moves to improve public transportation.

Handing over the certificates during an official ceremony at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston Wednesday, Dr Morais Guy, the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Transport, said the certification is a key part of the process in modernising the public transportation sector.

“Further, it signals a positive shift in the culture of the transportation business, a shift that will afford our route taxi operators a friendlier, comfortable environment in which to conduct business,” he stated.

Encouraging the taxi associations to fulfill their functions, Guy said, “At minimum, you must also seek to implement internal systems to monitor the performance of your members, particularly those whose activities put the lives of the commuting public at risk.”

“This should include instituting internal grievance procedures, training and development of operators, encouraging compliance with wearing of approved uniforms and Public Passenger Vehicles (PPV) badges by members, and the provision of intelligence to the (Transport) Authority on violators of the system. We are not asking you to be informers but we are asking you to protect your own interests,” he told them.