Separate fares for shared rides and improved insurance cover have been suggested to improve the taxi industry by drivers opposed to Government plans to enforce an electronic cab tracking system.

The proposals sent to Government also called for a return to higher fares after 10 p.m. rather than midnight as an incentive to keep cabs out at night.

However Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said the proposals were disappointing to customers hoping for an improved service.

Government hopes Global Positioning Systems (GPS) fitted in cabs will speed response times by allocating jobs to the nearest driver. Legislation could be passed as soon as Friday.

Dr. Brown said of the anti-GPS lobby: "Some of them don't believe the public are entitled to any faster service.

"It was (anti-GPS organiser) Lee Tucker who said if Bermudians want to get a faster service they should live closer to a hotel or an airport.

"He said that about three months ago, I have it on tape. That shocked me.

"Until that mindset is changed we're not going to get optimum results."

Mr. Tucker denied making the comments and challenged Dr. Brown to produce the tape.

He said he had said people who lived closer to hotels were more likely to get quicker service than people in remote areas and that a similar situation would be found in London and New York.

He said: "I am not going to tell someone to move closer to a hotel. That would be ridiculous."

Dr. Brown said proposals such as amending the rule requiring all taxis to be on the road for 16 hours to ten hours, amendments in the fee structure and multiple fares were all workable but off the point.

He said: "I noticed 99 percent of it has nothing to do with GPS. We are in agreement with much of what they are offering. We intend to review the fee structure and service standards."

He said of the paper: "It's more than we have seen in the past decade. It may be a starting place. We are prepared to address all of these issues when we get past the GPS legislation."

He said a modern central dispatch system using GPS technology would give valuable data to shape future taxi policy.

The paper from the Bermuda Taxi Operators Association (BTOA) urged taxi drivers to forget the habit of waiting for customers to come to them and said the fleet should be capable of handling any services the public needed. It also called for enterprise and new technology.

Yet it listed the current technology, mandatory two-way radios in all taxis, as a drawback.

However Mr. Tucker said the document had been worded badly and instead the BTOA were calling for radios to be compulsory.

Asked how this would ensure cabs turned up, Mr. Tucker urged passengers to call one to two hours ahead to get a cab while early morning cabs should be booked the night before.

He admitted the paper was a bit of a wish list but he said the paper also voiced criticism of the industry's performance. It called for a new taxi authority comprised of industry representatives to get rid of nit-picking regulations and propose new legislation. It said insurance for all drivers would encourage owners to lend their cars to other drivers and so increase the time taxis were on the road.

Currently owners fear they will be out of pocket if a driver damages or writes-off their vehicle.

The document called for better communication between hotels, airlines and restaurants about transport, a bi-monthly newsletter to hammer home operators obligations to respond to the dispatch and a public information campaign to compete with competition.

The Royal Gazette also obtained a copy of the rebel drivers' newsletter which said that if Dr. Brown was serious about improving transport he would have improved the bus service at weekends and public holidays.

And it said the strike on May 17 was just be a warm up. The article, written by Earlston Brown, said: "We made this Country and we deserve the right to feed and educate our children."

Dr. Brown welcomed the drivers' choice not to have strike action this week.He said: "It's a wise decision. I think they are losing public support - it's eroding rapidly. I think it makes economic sense when tourism is seeing a slight increase for them to work.

"Even though Mr. Tucker doesn't trust Government we trust taxi operators to do the right thing and get down to business."

And he responded to criticism from drivers who complained he had not followed up on his promise to complain to Finance Minister Eugene Cox over the axing of around 30 drivers from their health policy with Canadian Life Assurance. Dr. Brown said he had lobbied the Finance Minister on the taxi drivers' behalf but he urged drivers themselves to get organised.

He said: "If they were an organised group there is no insurance company in Bermuda which would not negotiate good rates with them. The same holds for servicing, working parts and fuel but they have to take charge. "One one hand they want to be separate from Government and on the other they want Government to ensure their financial success but that's not Government's role."