It may be the hot topic of the moment but for Michael Ray, the outgoing president of Bermuda Taxi Association (BTA), the issue of GPS is a dead one.

He once led the Island?s cabbies in revolt against Tourism and Transport Minister Ewart Brown?s proposals for the satellite navigation system. But now his message to taxi drivers is: ?It?s a done deal. Get past it.?

Married father-of-two Mr. Ray can?t see the point in fighting a system which is here to stay and, indeed, enshrined in the law. He?s also a unashamed convert to the benefits of equipment which allows taxi firms to see exactly where their cabs are located on the Island and dispatch them to jobs accordingly.

?We have got to get past the past and the fact that we were against mandatory GPS,? he says. ?It?s time to move on.?

Mr. Ray has been president of BTA since it came into existence in January 2005, formed from the ashes of the Bermuda Taxi Owners? Association to represent cab owners and drivers.

In that time, he?s been an outspoken figurehead for the industry, calling for reduced gas prices for cabbies, criticising Government over issues such as minibuses for Cup Match and pressing for a taxi commission.

But the 50-year-old has also been hard at work setting up BTA (Dispatching), a shareholder company formed as a direct result of Dr. Brown?s Motor Car Amendment Act 2005, which made GPS mandatory for taxis in February this year.

Mr. Ray owns two shares in the business and is president ? a role which he readily admits has conflicted with his executive position at BTA.

He has had to represent taxi drivers working for the Island?s other two dispatching firms Radio Cabs and Co-Op Taxis - his direct business rivals.

Now, with BTA (Dispatching) having signed up some 400 of the Island?s 600 cabs to its GPS system, he is about to relinquish his role at Bermuda Taxi Association.

He admits that some people felt he should have gone sooner. ?They felt I should have resigned because it was something that was added to the constitution in August 05 that you can?t serve as an executive and be an executive for a dispatching company,? he says, adding that he chose to serve out the remainder of his term.

?It has been a bit difficult. You are trying to represent your company as a president. I?m a shareholder and also representing the interests of the taxi fraternity. It?s two heads.?

Despite that, Mr. Ray feels he has worked hard for his colleagues in the industry. ?I leave with mixed feelings. I think in the 20 months that I have been in this seat I have done a lot for the Bermuda Taxi Association.

?There were a lot of things we lacked that I have brought to the table, along with the executive team. Simple things like we didn?t even have a PO Box.?

He recommends that his successor, who will be chosen next month, keeps pushing for a taxi commission. He envisages the body as one featuring representatives from the industry, Government, the financial sector and the general public.

The commission, he believes, should assess fare prices on a regular basis and lobby for cheaper insurance premiums for taxi owners. They are legally required to keep their vehicles on the roads for 16 hours a day during peak season, but get penalised by insurance companies for having second drivers.

?We should get increases in taxi fares every two years,? he says. ?We had one in ?97. The next one was in 2004. It?s ridiculous. A taxi commission should be set up where it?s mandatory that every two years the taxi rate increase is reviewed by a committee or price commission.?

He?s disappointed that such a commission hasn?t come about during his tenure - and concedes that there are other issues he would like to have resolved.

One of the most frequent complaints about taxis is the lack of them at the airport during peak hours. Mr. Ray says: ?People at the airport can?t get cabs. But a lot of the issues that are reported are not directly our fault.?

The airport - the place where, for many tourists, their first impression of Bermuda is formed - has long been a bone of contention between taxi drivers and Dr. Brown.

Embarrassingly, the president of the Caribbean Hotel Association was left stranded at the airport back in April after flying in on a Saturday night. The Minister pledged ?corrective measures? at the time.

But Mr. Ray says the problems are still ongoing and cannot be solved without better communication between the airport and the taxi industry.

He says that when flights arrive, limousine firms like Bermuda Host and Bee Line Transport are often already booked to pick up a vast majority of the passengers.

Hence cabbies arrive at the airport expecting a deluge of customers only to find no fares. When the next flight arrives, they might not show up, for fear of a wasted journey.

?If we knew how many passengers the limousines were collecting, that would help us,? says Mr. Ray. ?We believe that the Ministry, through the civil aviation, should be able to get that information sent to the dispatching companies.

?The limousine companies know ahead of time. If that information was put on the screen, we?d have a better circulation of cars. Why can?t we move a step forward and get the information from the ground transportation providers??

Mr. Ray says a scheme put in place to ease the airport situation - taxi sharing - has not taken off. ??Share-a-ride? is not working,? he says. ?One of the reasons is that the traffic officers (from the Transport Control Department) are not utilising the share-a-ride concept before there is a shortage.

?They wait until the line of cars has gone before they start using it. The option should be given to you to share how ever many cars there are waiting.?

Another popular complaint about cabs is how difficult it is to get them to either end of the Island out-of-hours. Mr. Ray admits that trying to get a cab from St. George?s or Somerset late at night is often impossible.

?These two extremes are the hardest points. It makes it hard because the central parishes, Smith?s to Southampton, are basically where the bulk of the work is.

?Everybody loves the big Southampton Princess job going to the airport. Everybody likes the long ride. We all want that big job but it?s the small jobs that sometimes put you in place for the big jobs.?

Dr. Brown?s vision for GPS was that it would help to tackle both those issues. But Mr. Ray reveals, shockingly, that as many as 250 of BTA (Dispatching)?s drivers are not using the new GPS system at all - despite having it installed and paying for the dispatching service. The firm no longer operates a radio system, so those drivers are incommunicado, picking up jobs where they find them.

He thinks the negative reaction to GPS is partly a Bermudian thing: taking a long time to get used to change.

But he also believes that it could have been sold to cabbies in a far more palatable way. ?What we should have marketed it as was digital dispatching with GPS,? he says. ?When guys hear GPS they hear just what it means: global positioning system. That frightened a lot of taxi drivers. They think ?you are tracking me and you want to find out where I am?.

?Whether that was Government?s intention, I can?t say. But if they had marketed it in a different way and told them ?potentially you can make more money? it might have gone down better.?

Mr. Ray, a bible reader at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Southampton, drives a taxi and owns two cabs. His father was a cabbie and his two sons, Jevon, 26, and Damyon, 23, also drive his cars. Having first been adverse to the idea of GPS, he now can?t praise it enough.

?I worked both days of Cup Match. I love it,? he says. ?I think it?s a great thing. There is no radio dispatch so you don?t have to talk to anyone. It?s all on your screen. It?s easy. GPS eliminates you driving around and looking for work.?

He says safety concerns expressed by some drivers are irrelevant. ?The GPS beeps. Check your mirrors and make sure you can pull in. You don?t have to drive and read the screen.?

And he doesn?t have a huge amount of sympathy for those cabbies who still haven?t had GPS installed - despite a six-month grace period which expired on August 6 - and are being told they can no longer take fares. ?Bermudians are known to be procrastinators. It?s the Bermudian way. But we had six months. It?s not like they sprung it on us.?

He believes the Island?s 600 cabs should be more than enough for an island so small. But he says to have an efficient customer-driven service, many cabbies need to change their mindset.

He?d like to see all taxi drivers undergo a customer service training course before they are granted a permit. Although he hasn?t always seen eye-to-eye with Dr. Brown, he respects the man. ?I think Dr. Brown is a love him or hate him type of person. He?s proven himself to be a man that can get things done. You may not like the way he does it but I have sat with him face-to-face one one occasion and I think he?s a go-getter.?

He laughs when asked what cabbies think of the Deputy Premier. ?Don?t ask. I think in some quarters he?s respected. I think generally speaking feelings are mixed.?

From next month, Mr. Ray will continue trying to effect change in the industry from within BTA (Dispatching). He has been approached by one of the Island?s political parties - he won?t reveal which - but says he has ?no interest whatsoever? in standing for election.

Instead, he hopes to work closely with the new president of BTA, will continue investigating a credit card payment system for cabs and wants to persuade more drivers to turn on GPS.