Havana’s unanswered transportation problems

HAVANA – A new law for private transportation services in Cuba’s capital has been in effect since July. I am not referring to the public transportation system which is also a mess, but solely the private system. With the Ministry of Transport’s Resolution No. 165, which came into being barely a month ago, there are several different ways whereby taxis can operate in Havana: by routes established in advance, and free, or what is the same, outside the main routes through which people move around most. Regulations have also been established for the tax rates and the amount of fuel that can be consumed. Benefits have also been included, such as the purchase of fuel at better prices and the possibility of accessing a state market for spare parts. About the rights of workers who take part in this new experiment, nothing is known yet.

But a month into the private transportation experiment little has been reported about the results. Nothing is known as to whether there has been an acceptance of the new plan among drivers, or how many of the more than 6,000 transport operation license holders have gone along with the state proposal. We are not even sure how many are adhering to the new route system, or if any of these drivers have resigned and turned in their licenses.

Just a few weeks ago a taxi driver told me about his experience at the bank opening the account required by those who decide to participate in the experiment:

“I do not know what is going to happen this December 7,” said the alarmed cashier who helped him, referring to the deadline established for taxi drivers to complete the required legal procedures; adding, “In this branch, we expect five hundred taxi drivers, and you are only number forty-one.”

Moving forward nobody knows what to expect. As the city public bus system continues to collapse in the capital the picture looks dire. 

As of this moment all we have are questions with no answers.

At a press conference on July 12, Marta Oramas, Vice Minister of Transportation, when she announced the private transportation experiment, said that those who would opt for the new route service modality would have access to preferential fuel prices, in national currency — by the way, prices not very different from those found in the black market, which legitimizes it instead of competing with it. Oramas also foresaw the possibility of acquiring parts and pieces needed for the operation of vehicles in a wholesale market, depending on their availability to the state. 

Note that the latter is something in the future, but very much in the future … “anticipated … a possibility … could happen …”, and yet the experiment has already begun. The government official also spoke of “a wholesale market” which has been a dream of the self-employed, and probably the rest of Cuban consumers who see more and more empty stores, and that is non-existent. And to top it off, the idea ends with the proviso that this would be according to the “availability to the state.”

It seems like a joke, but the sad truth is that it is not. If the state so far has not been able to keep its own fleet of vehicles running, how can they possibly have parts for these taxi drivers, most of them working with cars from the last century that need some kind of repair weekly? This is something that has not been explained either.

For those who don’t see this as much of a problem, the vice minister mentioned the “development of a plan for a network of repair shops where these private transport providers, in an orderly manner, and depending on the work provided there, will have possible access to these locations.” All promises made with certain qualifications such as “all in due time,” or “in an organized manner.” In other words, more of the same which often means less than what is needed. 

To put it bluntly: what this reordering of the system is attempting to do is reduce, or at least temper, the profits of private carriers for a service they charge as they see fit. Their prices, it is true, are abusive, but that is how supply and demand works. The new law may help eliminate some taxis, but prices will not go down because the demand will still be there. A better system of public transportation, more buses circulating around the city, for example, would force taxi drivers to rethink their prices. As long as this is not possible, then we must deal with what we have.

Presently, this experiment sounds like too many sticks and very few carrots to achieve the impossible: get taxi drivers to cooperate. The foreseeable thing is that they will continue charging as they please while passengers have little choice but to jump in their taxis to reach their destination. Of course, I refer to those able to pay them, not the ones I’ve seen hanging from the public buses — unless there are police personnel or inspectors who travel incognito in each taxi.

And I have only mentioned those who adhere to the approved routes, because those who decide to take the “free taxi” routes — where there will not be preferential prices for fuel — have the biggest and most unlikely obstacle to overcome when choosing what streets to travel on. Because they will not be able to offer rides in the state’s approved routes.

It is almost like telling these drivers not to even attempt this, because they are not allowed to transit centric avenues and main arteries used by taxi cabs. And where the hell will these ‘free taxis’ go? What freedom of operation would they have, and what would they gain with such freedom, if they are forced to drive through the secondary alleys that only persons who transit the back roads cross?

No administrative measure — unless applied at gunpoint — will resolve anything as long as it is not ruled by common sense.

The ordering of the new taxi service should be first and foremost reasonable, as most everything else should be. And more importantly, not have the people pay the consequences when there are no other options of transport in the city because taxi drivers, as is currently happening, are working less and less and refusing the longer rides.

Far from solving problems, the new law is doing just the opposite: creating more disorder, more corruption, and more discomfort.