Up to 350 taxi drivers will work to rule this morning by driving to Hamilton at the regulation 35 kph in protest at Government's planned “spy-in-the cab” global positioning system.

Fed-up cabbies will set off from the West End and St. David's on all major routes to converge for a meeting at number one shed.

Bermuda Taxi Owners Association (BTOA) President Gordon Flood said: “It's not going to disrupt traffic by doing two miles an hour, it's to show the support we do have.”

But he added: “Even at the regular speed limit it will have an effect because of the additional cars on the road.”

He said cabbies would not be lobbying Parliament after they rendezvous in the capital at around 8.30 a.m. after a start time of between 7.30 and 7.45. a.m.

Mr. Flood said: “Parliament won't be open, it would be pointless.”

He said Government was refusing to listen to concerns about the new global position system (GPS) which he said most cabbies found too intrusive.

And he said the taxis were on a collision course with the Government after Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown refused to acknowledge the drivers' compromise position of enforcing the use of radios in cabs to improve service.

“If nothing comes of this, other actions will be taken,” said Mr. Flood. “How far do we have to go? We could call a strike. We don't want to go that far. The Premier has not seen us, she did see the BIU. She wrote a letter but it does nothing for us.”

Mr. Flood added: “We have 200 taxis that don't have communications - that's one third of the cabs out there. We know that's part of the reason the public are not getting the proper service.

“The Director of Transport could rule that this radio law be enforced.”

The GPS system could be phased in said Mr. Flood but he questioned the need for it.

“We are 22 square miles but a lot of big cities don't have it. In Boston they have voice dispatch. GPS is going to be put in so we are totally tracked by Government, they want to record how often we work, how much we make, how fast we travel.

“If they need this information why don't they put the equipment in our cars?” he asked. “They are asking us to help them track us but we don't want to be tracked.”

He said no other profession was tagged in the way taxi drivers would be under the scheme which requires that machines, costing around $2,000, are put inside the cab to pinpoint its position to within a few feet.

Government hope the scheme will reduce waiting times for taxis. Last night Dr. Brown said he was totally unaware about the protest action.

He said: “My only comment is that I still hope the taxi owners will come together to serve the Bermudian public.”

Mr. Flood said he did not know how many drivers would be supporting today's action but he said around 350 drivers were in the BTOA camp in opposing the new technology while a maximum of 40 were in the pro GPS-camp.The action was bound to be unpopular with the public said Mr. Flood but it was necessary to make Government listen.

GPS systems would not guarantee the nearest cab got to a job claimed Mr. Flood - only that the first one in that zone would reach the passenger.

The new set-up would stop passengers from hailing cabs in the street said Mr. Flood while costs for cabbies would