Finger Pointing On the Pirate Taxi Issue Continues
A plan to fine big "taxistas piratas" (pirate taxis) has failed. The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) has only approved fines one in twenty cases brought before it.

The regulating authority says that the traffic tickers submitted by the Policía de Tránsito are incomplete or with incorrect information, impeding the imposing of a ¢1 million colones (Us$1.900) fine being levied against those drivers who offer the illegal service of public transport.

Carolina Mora, a spokesperson for the Aresep, assures that the tickets reach the Authority torn and unreadable and with the wrong license plate number or drivers license number.

Mora said that on average, for every 20 tickers, only driver can be sanctioned. In fact, the Aresep is investigating 36 charges against "piratas", but the Authority has not been able to resolve one case.

The results are minimal even though the ministra de Transportes, Karla González, issued a directive to all Tránsito officials on the steps to follow when filling out a traffic ticket with respect to piratas.

The violation of the piratas is against articles 38 and 44 of the "Ley de la Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos", which allows the setting of the fine 5.000 times the usual fine of ¢20.000 colones issued by traffic officials under the traffic laws.

German Marín, director of the Policía de Transito, was upset over the Aresep declaration, saying that it is an "excuse" by the regulating authority.

"It is very simple to place the blame on the officials. The tickets cannot be bad because they are filled out in the format required by the Aresep. The Authority has never shown an interest in participating in operations against the piratas, to point out the errors in the process. It is an excuse to give to the public to come out clean", said Marín.

Marín added that during the past three years the Aresep has never told them what the errors have been in the tickets so that they can be fixed.

For his part, Edgar Castro, of the Federación Nacional de Cooperativas de Taxi (Fenacootaxi) - the taxi union - criticizes the Transport ministry for never resolving the "piratas" issue, saying that continually a large number of pirate taxis operate as "porteadores", which is legal.

The difference between "porteadores" and "piratas" is that the former offer service door-to-door, while the latter pick up fares on the street, like an official taxi, often using red cars leaving the consumer to believe they are in a legal taxi.

The union leader criticizes the efforts of the MOPT minister, Karla González, and vice-minister, Viviana Martín, who according to Castro have not done enough to minimize the problem and the Aresep, who allows the fines to be issued, but does not do enough to collect on them.