Phillips says gov’t delay on ride-hailing policy destroying transport sector

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Spokesperson on Transport and Mining, Mikael Phillips, says the Opposition stands in full solidarity with members of the transport sector whose businesses he said are being destroyed and whose livelihoods are adversely impacted by the unfair competition from unregulated “ride-hailing” services in Jamaica. Phillips, in a statement on Wednesday, said the Opposition had raised the issue on many occasions to no avail. However, he noted the concerns of the tourism ground transportation groups within the tourism industry and called on the Minister of Transport, Daryl Vaz, to take urgent steps to fulfil his outstanding commitments to the sector before a larger crisis develops. The Opposition spokesperson said the minister had given a solemn promise during the sectoral debate in Parliament on May 5, 2026, that the ride hailing policy Green Paper would be tabled within three months. But Phillips said five months had now elapsed, and nothing had been heard from the minister. He said the matter was extremely urgent from both a regulatory and security perspective, while the ministry deliberates and the Steering Committee established by the minister to provide oversight and ensure stakeholder engagement throughout the policy development process has provided no update. Phillips said the minister’s tardiness amounts to a gross dereliction of duty, as the industry and commuters have been raising the issues over several years. He said while the Opposition was not in principle against ride-hailing, safeguards were needed in the interest of the public and industry players who had invested in transport for local commuters and the tourism sector. The Opposition spokesperson said these players were mostly small businesses and could not withstand the severity of unfair competition in an industry with heavy regulation from the Transport Authority (TA) and stringent qualification rules from the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo). He said their complaint that the unregulated entities were undercutting the approved fares by as much as 60 per cent is, therefore, shocking. Phillips also called on the minister to support the operators’ effort to develop an app as an interim measure to stem the loss of business, as they claimed up to 45 per cent of the local ground transport market in tourism has been affected.