Angry taxi drivers met with Government yesterday to express concerns over the insistence meter charges won?t rise until performance improves.

A rise of 25 percent was promised in the recent taxi review with the first 20 percent set to come in this year.

But then Transport Minister Ewart Brown put in the rider about improved performance.

The drivers, who have not had a rise since 1997, have urged Government to retract that statement and are now seeking a meeting with Dr. Brown.

Bermuda Taxi Owners Association Spokesman Lee Tucker said linking rates and performance had come out of the blue from the Minister and had upset some drivers.

A delegation met with Transport Permanent Secretary Mark Telemaque yesterday but, following the meeting, Mr. Tucker declined to say what the options were now for the taxi owners.

He said: ?We will see what happens and see what Dr. Brown says. We want clarification. How can you judge a satisfactory performance or a negative performance??

Dr. Brown had suggested that a month without complaints about taxis might be one possible criteria.

But Mr. Tucker said it was wrong to judge the taxi industry as a whole on the performance of one or two cabs.

He said dispatchers dealt with 5,000 calls a week while there were other street jobs cabbies had to do.

Dr. Brown said last night he didn?t want to comment at the moment but a press conference would be held soon, possibly next week, explaining the policy.

He said: ?Whatever it is, it will be extremely clear.?

The Transport Control Department has long been concerned that many cabs are not being used enough, leading to a lack of service including bottlenecks at the airport.

Part of the reason Government is planning to allowing 50 taxi permit holders to convert to limousine permits while insisting all taxi rides should be metered is out of concern that many taxis are spending much of their time on pre-booked off-meter jobs meaning few are available for normal hire.

TCD Director Kevin Monkman said last year meter information was gathered over a six-month period to find out who was working and who wasn?t.

He said: ?I find it hard to believe a taxi owner is only doing four metered trips a day, a lot of work is not being metered.?

Mr. Monkman said he believed taxi operators operating unofficial limousine services were now breaking the law and the only time a meter could be turned off was when picking up airport passengers on a pre-booked jobs.

He said even tours had a rate on the meter. Unlawfully stopping a meter currently carries a $70 fine but this is set to increase to $250 under new industry guidelines.