-- would go a long way to improving the experience of visitors to Bermuda.

Mr. Michael Fields, chairman of the Licensed Pre-Arranged Transportation Operators and Dispatch Companies, delivered that message on Wednesday at a public meeting in Hamilton organised by the Premier's Commission on Competitiveness.

"We have pinpointed some areas where actual cheating of tourists goes on, where actual price gouging goes on,'' said Mr. Fields, who speaks for the association representing Bermuda's two bus dispatching companies and five taxi companies.

Mr. Fields, who blamed the gouging on operators who are not licensed to serve the airport, said problems continue despite more than a year of complaints from his association.

Under the 1980 report of the Board of Inquiry into the Bermuda taxi industry, dispatching companies licensed to serve the airport can charge a commission of no more than 10 percent for transportation services, Mr. Fields said.

But "unlicensed operators are not governed by any laws or regulations at all,'' Mr. Fields later told The Royal Gazette "They are known to charge whatever the marketplace can bear.'' At the meeting, Mr. Fields cited a receipt from the Southampton Princess Hotel which appeared to show that three couples were charged $219 by Bermuda Island Cruises Ltd. for a three-hour taxi tour.

"The driver doing the tour will get $90. The people operating the desk just pocket the rest of it,'' he said.

The legal rate for six passengers from the taxi rate sheet is $30 per hour, he said.

He also complained that hotels include inflated inflated charges when transportation is built in to their package rates.

Mr. Fields said his association has complained to the Ministries of Transport and Tourism since 1992, but "we're still waiting for results to this day.'' Mr. Mansfield (Jim) Brock, chairman of the commission developing a Strategic Plan for Bermuda's Tourism Industry, told Mr. Fields: "Your representations have not fallen on deaf ears. The Premier has appointed a committee headed by Mr. John Drinkwater to look at such problems, he said.

Mr. Derek Morris, president of Bermuda Island Cruises, said: "We don't sell taxi tours.

"If we did sell it, there is nothing wrong with marking it up ten, or 15, or even 20 percent,'' he said.

Companies cannot sell such services for nothing, said Mr. Morris, adding that the 10 percent restriction on taxi dispatchers is too low.