Parents carpool to take student to exams in Grande

Ralph Ban­warie

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Com­muters trav­el­ling out of San­gre Grande, who de­pend on maxi taxis for their trans­porta­tion, were forced to use Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion (PTSC) bus­es yes­ter­day, af­ter maxi taxi op­er­a­tors staged day one of their in­tend­ed three-day protest ac­tion.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the maxi hub on Brier­ley Street and the East­ern Main Road, there were no signs of red band max­is op­er­at­ing.

How­ev­er, a few small max­is and two large max­is were seen op­er­at­ing their school trips out of the hub.

One dri­ver, who was wait­ing for his school trip to Va­len­cia but re­fused to go on cam­era, said he was go­ing back home af­ter that trip.

Some stu­dents at the hub re­vealed that they were wait­ing for a drop from their friends' par­ents, who agreed to car­pool so they could get to their schools on time for ex­ams.

Some em­ploy­ees at the hub were al­so heard mak­ing calls to their em­ploy­ers to in­di­cate they would be late for work, while oth­ers said they would take leave as they would have prob­lems get­ting back home.

San­gre Grande po­lice were seen at the var­i­ous lo­ca­tions mon­i­tor­ing the ac­tion of the maxi taxi op­er­a­tors as well.