Bermuda?s taxi industry seems headed for another summer of discontent with the Ministry of Transport and the owners and drivers unlikely to compromise over plans to introduce a GPS-based dispatch system.

Neither side come out of this issue very well.

The taxi industry, as usual, is divided and has moreover, failed to come out publicly with its own plan to improve service.

And there is no disputing that the taxi industry does itself no favours when people cannot get cabs or have to put up with rude or selfish behaviour from drivers.

These may be the acts of a minority, but that does not matter if they damage the image of the whole industry.

At the same time, Transport Minister Ewart Brown and the businesses behind the GPS service have clearly failed to sell their plan.

And Dr. Brown?s decision to tie the first fare increases in the industry since 1997 to unspecified improvements in service simply looks vindictive.

Similarly, forcing drivers under legislation to do business with a particular firm has riled the drivers, who may not mind the system itself, but have doubts about enriching a chosen few through their own labour.

Whether that?s fair to MP George Scott and his fellow shareholders at Advanced Tech Solutions that plans to sell the equipment to the central dispatch company or not, it is understandable and the taxi owners may well be able to fight it on constitutional grounds.

What is still not clear is why the backers of the GPS system don?t just get on with it and introduce the system.

They argue that it will not be viable unless they receive the services of a critical mass of the drivers.

But if the service is so good, and those drivers who subscribe to it have more work than they can handle, then other owners (who are after all in the taxi business to make money) would be foolish not to get on board, especially if consumers abandon the traditional dispatch companies and start calling for ?GPS?.

Business is about risk and believing in your product. If the backers of the system truly do have confidence in the system, then they should just get on with it instead of waiting to be handed a monopoly.