Venezuela. Since 2010, the Single Union of Transport Workers of the state of Nueva Esparta (Suttene) has presented various alternatives for the regional government to take corrective measures in terms of safety for drivers and users of the transport system.
In 2010 alone, at least 23 deaths of taxi drivers were registered, which aroused an alert in the island entity, which is still present, because the plans to minimize this scourge remain unfinished.
José Luis Isase, president of Suttene, recalled that the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 were terrible for taxi drivers, since the deaths of these workers were on the rise, which caused that from those years to the present, the union and its affiliates maintain that the organization in a single platform that encompasses all service providers and the implementation of technological equipment, are the keys to providing safety to both drivers and users.
From Suttene they raised the draft Law of Development and Taxi Service before the Legislative Council of the Bolivarian State of Nueva Esparta (Clebne), when Morel Rodríguez Ávila served as governor and then, under the current administration of Carlos Mata Figueroa. The objective was to provide legal and organizational certainty in the sector. Both deliveries were unsuccessful, because to date this legal framework, which focuses on the use of technology, has not been debated.
Another proposal is to concentrate all taxi drivers in a Regional Taxi Office, where anyone who intends to offer that service will be fully registered and identified and thus, the state could have a guarantee that those who were there met the requirements. This would provide confidence to users, who as is known, a good part of them are national and international tourists.
The issue of technology is given because, according to Isase, having concentrated public transport on the same platform and monitoring it with a global positioning system (GPS) or internal camera system, it will prevent eventualities, or generate a more accurate response when crimes are committed. The union leader said that most of the crimes are committed against independent taxi drivers, showing that there is a weakness in that sector that makes them vulnerable, presenting a lack of organization and communication systems.
