Transport Minister Ewart Brown has warned taxi drivers they have just over a week to get a mandatory satellite navigation system installed in their cabs.

The Deputy Premier admitted at a meeting on Tuesday night that there continued to be ?service issues? with the Island?s taxis but said the high-tech GPS equipment was allowing Government to get more information on vehicles.

?August 6 is a very important day because that?s the deadline for the installation of the GPS system,? he said. ?As of midnight August 6... any taxi driver that does not have GPS installed will be operating in violation of the law.?

Mr. Brown would not comment when asked after the meeting what penalty unequipped cabbies would face.

He had earlier asked those gathered at Clearwater Middle School in St. David?s for a meeting on buses how they felt about the current taxi service.

?Poor,? came the response.

Dr. Brown said that the GPS wasn?t intended as a cure-all for the industry?s failings but was aimed at improving the service to customers.

Taxi drivers were originally given until February 6 to get the GPS equipment installed in their vehicles under the Motor Car Amendment Act 2005 but the Government said extra time would be allowed for cabbies in genuine financial hardship.

Three companies on the Island offer GPS to drivers: BTA Dispatching, Radio Cabs and Co-op Taxis.

BTA president Michael Ray said his company had fitted 375 vehicles with the equipment. But he estimated that about 150 of those drivers were not using the GPS.

?It?s for various reasons,? he said. ?Even though we offered ample training, some don?t know how to use it. Some are just waiting for the deadline and some maybe just feel they were against it and it?s a means of protest.?

He said BTA had given the Ministry of Transport at least five reports on the new system and who was using it since it was put in place.

Mr. Ray believes there should be a penalty for those drivers not using GPS.

He said some cabbies were waiting until the last minute to get equipped but he warned them that there were only five working days left to do so because of the Cup Match holiday.

?We have a few of our guys that either have paid or have desired to purchase from us. Within the next week and a half we expect a rush.?

Radio Cabs owner Eddie Darrell has fitted 150 cabs but said GPS only really needed to be used when there were no cars in the vicinity of a customer.

?You don?t have to use GPS at all times,? he said. ?You only use it if you need a car and they are calling and calling and calling. In the middle of the Island there?re always cars close by.?

He said it was up to drivers who had paid to have the system installed as to whether or not to use it. ?That?s their prerogative,? he said. ?They have got a right to do whatever. All we do is provide the service for them. But drivers will have to get used to it.?

Alaine Mouchette, president of Co-op Taxis, said the company had signed up 50 drivers but had only just begun installing the GPS systems. She said all Co-op cabbies would be ready to use the equipment by August 6.

?It?s a huge investment that you are asking the drivers to make. They are all complying one by one. The ones who don?t comply, they won?t have any choice but to come online because they just won?t be able to work.?