Waits of up to half an hour for a taxi at the Airport have prompted the Transport Minister to pressure cab drivers to organise or face competition.

At a recent meeting with unionised taxi operators, Transport Minister Ewart Brown had revealed that an airline resorted to calling him at home when they found no cabs were available for their passengers.

Neville Darrell, president of the taxi division of the Bermuda Industrial Union, revealed yesterday that drivers have been given an ultimatum by Ministry of Transport Permanent Secretary Herman Tucker.

Told essentially to ensure adequate service is provided at the Airport or face competition from other forms of transport, the taxi union committee discussed Mr. Tucker's threat yesterday.

Mr. Darrell said Mr. Tucker's action came after Dr. Brown noticed there were no taxis at the Airport last Thursday.

"Mr. Herman Tucker threatened us that if we do not do something about the shortage, then they will provide other means of transport at the Airport,'' Mr. Darrell told The Royal Gazette .

Charging that the shortage at the Airport is because of a "chaotic system'' in operation there, Mr. Darrell held that taxi operators were not to blame and stressed there is no shortage of cabs.

"It is not the taxi operators' fault,'' he said. "It's the misappropriation of the way things are being handled at the Airport. There's no dispatcher.

It's chaotic.'' Mr. Darrell added: "There's only a TCD officer on hand and the people who were there before were just a waste of the taxpayers' money. They were put there on a temporary basis as the Airport renovations were underway and they were only to tell you where to go.'' Illustrating the difficulty for taxi drivers, he pointed out that they have no idea what volume of people are expected at the Airport on any given day.

Adding to his concern was that applications for two limousine services were submitted to the Transport Control Department (TCD) yesterday as well.

"Coincidentally today two limousine services have applied for permission to operate at the Airport,'' Mr. Darrell said. "The services would run between the Airport and anywhere people want to go on the Island.'' Val Caesar, manager of administration and registration at TCD, confirmed that an application for public transport at the Airport was received. But he said it was unlikely to succeed.

"The Board met and reviewed the application today,'' he said, "but it is unlikely that we will add to the current limo fleet or introduce any new vehicles.

"There was one application seeking permission for two different vehicles,'' he added, "one was for a bus-type vehicle, much the same as the current airport limousines, while the other was for a more upscale prestigious sort of car to transport VIPs.'' Explaining the law does not currently allow such vehicles, Mr. Caesar revealed several requests to offer such a service have been made to TCD over the years.

He said "everything is contingent on the Transport 2000 report'' which is being compiled by the Transportation Committee and is not expected to be completely finished until "around this time next year''.

Mr. Tucker said he was disappointed the taxi operators construed his comments as a threat and said Dr. Brown will be making a statement shortly.