'I feel their pain': Service NL Minister meets with taxi group

Cab drivers and owners in St. John's were planning to take their cars off the road Monday to protest skyrocketing insurance rates and a lack of assistance from the Newfoundland and Labrador government.

That protest has been postponed, after a meeting with Service NL Minister Perry Trimperwho said he and the group had an excellent discussion.

"They just shared with me the bills that they're receiving. It's costing some of these companies in the vicinity of $7,000 to $10,000 per car to insure," he said.

"That's a crazy amount of money to pay. So, I feel their pain."

Drivers are forced to take cars off the road because they can't afford to insure them.- Doug McCarthy

Owner Doug McCarthy said he thinks the meeting went well.

"I'm satisfied with today's meeting [and] the fact that we've got an assurance from the minister that one, we'll keep the dialogue open, and two that the government is actively pursuing some of the requests that we've put forward," he said.

While Trimper said the government will have an announcement soon about an insurance review, until that happens both parties need to communicate and work together.

"I don't have an immediate, snap my fingers solution here for them," he said.

"[It's] a very professional group, and the dialogue is very useful. [If] we keep working that way, we'll get a lot done."

McCarthy saidit's been hard to recruit new cab drivers because of the economy and there aren't as many people out on the town looking for taxis as before.

"We're in dire straits, there's no ifs ands or buts about it," said McCarthy.

"We have got to the point now where brokers can no longer afford to keep their cars on the road just simply due to the fact that the insurance rates are killing us."

Every car off the road means 2 unemployed

Since 2013, taxi insurance rates in this province have nearly tripled. That doesn't take into account another increase insurance companies are bringing in on Oct. 1.

"A chap Friday got a renewal in the mail eight cars, $98,000. And that's not counting the increase that is due to come the first of October, which is basically another 40 per cent," said McCarthy.

Pair the rising cost of putting a car on the road, and fewer people looking for taxis, and it means fewer cabs on the road.

"Drivers are forced to take cars off the road because they can't afford to insure them. I know one company had 11 cars, now they're down to five because they couldn't afford to insure the other six," he said.

"And for every car that we take off the road, that's a minimum of two people unemployed."

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McCarthy said the taxi company owners got together over the weekend to come up with new suggestions to bring to government Monday morning.

He remains hopeful that something can be done.

"We've had several meetings with the minister already and he's receptive to our problem, it's just the solutions aren't coming out fast enough," said McCarthy. "We've got a couple more ideas that we want to present to him."