Taxi owners were unable to achieve much at the Bermuda Taxi Owners Association (BTOA) meeting on Wednesday night with a key presenter off the Island and not enough members present to ratify the Constitution.

?It was a brief meeting tonight,? BTOA president Gordon Flood told on Wednesday night.

While members were due to hear a presentation on new dispatching technology, the person sent by the BTOA to Florida to inspect the technology was unfortunately off the Island again. ?So we only briefly touched on it,? Mr. Flood said. ?There was no technical stuff.?

There is still much apprehension about any new dispatching systems among taxi drivers, he said. ?Those three letters keep coming up ... But the fact is that almost every piece of equipment you can buy today has the capabilities to install GPS.

?You can buy it ? but you don?t have to activate it,? he said ? a concept taxi drivers are nevertheless uncomfortable with. ?It?s just a hard sell sometimes.?

With just about 80 members present at the meeting, Mr. Flood added, the BTOA was also unable to ratify its Constitution. ?It was not as well-attended as we would?ve liked ... We were looking for a lot more members.

?We want to try to move ahead with the Constitution as quickly as possible so that we can get a properly elected committee and register the association,? he explained.

The BTOA has another meeting scheduled for January 12, 2005, he said, and it is hoped that all members available will attend.