Transport Minister Ewart Brown deserves some credit for moving a good way towards meeting the taxi operators' concerns over the taxi-GPS bill which passed in the House of Assembly on Friday night.

He has made it clear that he will not compromise any further, but he will also know that the bill must still pass the Senate before it can become law.

And that, given the difficulties Dr. Brown has already had, is far from guaranteed.

While many of the taxi operators remain unhappy with the bill, even with the amendments that Dr. Brown has put in place, he did enough to satisfy enough Progressive Labour Party backbenchers to pass the bill.

Even so, just 16 Government MPs voted for the legislation in the House on Friday.

Former Bermuda Industrial Union president and Government whip Ottiwell Simmons abstained, Reginald Burrows expressed his unhappiness with the bill and was absent for the vote and current BIU president Derrick Burgess was also absent, although he did not speak on the legislation.

Given that sort of unhappiness, the taxi operators may be able to convince the Independent Senators in the upper house to join with the United Bermuda Party to block the bill or to send it back to the House with amendments.

And enough concerns were raised to make the Independents consider carefully what course of action they wish to take.

The key issue remains the Government's determination to make the system mandatory.

The Opposition United Bermuda Party scored some points with the argument that if the central dispatch system is so great and will make the drivers more money, then the drivers will use it voluntarily.

The concerns over the possibility that the machines may cause cancer must also be taken seriously and it would be wise of the Government to research the concerns revealed by the UBP's Jamahl Simmons carefully before the bill is debated in the Senate.

If the Senate approves the taxi legislation, then the taxi owners will have to install a form of central dispatch in their vehicles in the next 18 months.

Dr. Brown is quite right when he says that taxi service must improve. The question is whether the GPS system is the best way to achieve that goal.

It will be up to the provider of the equipment to demonstrate that they can provide a more efficient system than the current one and to provide superior service to the customer.

Just as the drivers have 18 months to meet the requirements, so the central dispatch company has 18 months to prove that it can deliver on its promises - and on Dr. Brown's.

If it does not deliver, and if service does not improve, then Dr. Brown should rethink the plan and should be as determined to get rid of it as he has been to install it.

But if service improves, then Dr. Brown, who has worked hard to deal with other transport problems, should get the credit.