The Collectivité plunges cabs back into the nights of 2018

The elected members of the territorial council, meeting on Thursday July 18, rejected the proposal to update the fare grid put forward by the cab association. Instead, they voted to apply the 2018 night rates for daytime journeys.

The Saint-Barthélemy cab drivers' association has been calling for an increase in its fare scale for over two years. Last Thursday, July 18, the transport professionals expected the elected representatives of the Collectivité territoriale to update the document. At the end of a rambling and lively debate, the councillors voted in favour of deliberation number 4 on the agenda, but only after rejecting the proposals submitted to them by the association. The councillors felt that some of the fare changes suggested by the cab drivers were "unjustified". They therefore preferred to adopt the proposal put forward by Maxime Desouches, the fourth vice-president. This involves applying the same night rates as in 2018 for daytime journeys. A surcharge of five euros per race from midnight to 5am. These rates are a far cry from those initially proposed by the cab drivers' association, which has been unhappy ever since.
"A load of rubbish
We're well aware that the vast majority of elected representatives don't take our profession seriously," says association president Sabrina Zimmermann. Instead of fulfilling their commitments and obligations to update the grid over the past two years, they keep dangling the promise that it will be done the following month. We had proposed an Excel file with the grid, and we were supposed to work on it to make it evolve in unison. Instead, it was presented as is and sabotaged by people who don't know the national rules that govern us. And as a last resort, they pulled out the 2018 grid, revalued by five euros. Five euros on six years of inflation! "A decision that is as incomprehensible as it is unacceptable for the President as it is for all the professionals.
Since April, Francius Matignon, an elected member of the Saint-Barth d'Abord group, has taken over the dossier previously handled by Dimitri Lédée, a territorial councillor for the Action-Équilibre group. After Francius Matignon read out the report, Dimitri Lédée immediately reacted. Not without a vengeance. Saint-Barth d'Abord had told me that it was an easy job to do, and if it was to do that, it wasn't hard at all," he said ironically.It's not serious! It's not serious," he says. I can't believe we've managed to get this pile of mud. Every line of this report is questionable. It's a load of rubbish. "For Dimitri Lédée, the lack of concrete data does not justify the fare hikes put forward by the cabs.
To ensure that the territorial exchanges don't degenerate once again into childish, disorganized verbal jousting, the president, Xavier Lédée, does his utmost to temper the debate. "I don't expect us to agree on everything," he says, before joining Dimitri Lédée in saying that "certain changes are not justified. certain changes are not justified" and that other elements of the report are "difficult to objectify". For Jonas Brin, elected representative for Action-Équilibre, only one thing matters: "We all agree on one point: the grid needs to be reviewed. "It's at this point that Maxime Desouches pulls out of his hat the proposal to apply the 2018 night fare grid. While assuring: "I'm in favor of protecting our cabs. "However, all the association's demands were rejected by the elected representatives.

"No one will work at night any more".
These suggestions, which the cab drivers' association insists were intended to be discussed at working sessions or in committee, included the addition ofa surcharge for each passenger on board, a surcharge for journeys to sites and villas that are difficult to access, and a surcharge for each minute customers are late (after a ten-minute waiting period). All have been ruled out. When a customer arrives 45 minutes late, we shouldn't say anything," says Sabrina Zimmermann. Waiting ten minutes for free is already an effort that we don't see anywhere else in the world. "As for night rates, the president of the association believes that they will encourage professionals to abandon these essential time slots. "With the dangers, sick customers in the vehicle, health problems, difficulties for social and family life, nobody will work at night for this rate anymore," she warns. There's no point. Even when the hours of operation for temporary licenses were restricted to 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., no driver wanted to work those hours. The whole thing is grotesque and ridiculous. "But anger and disappointment are not always an obstacle to clarity.
Thus, the president of the cab association recalls a few facts. "In 2017, the price of petrol and diesel was 1.21 euros per liter, today it's 1.62 euros for petrol and 1.81 for diesel," she points out. What's more, since Irma, our insurance has risen from 1,300 to 1,900 euros. "As for garage labor, which is said to be 40 euros, as indicated during the territorial council meeting, the cab drivers dispute this. In fact, it is now closer to 80 to 90 euros than 40.

Presenting a new scale?
For the cab drivers' association, the decision taken during the meeting on Thursday July 18 marks a new stage in the deterioration of its relations with the Collectivité. At the very least, with a large proportion of the elected representatives. In fact, during the vote on the amendment proposed orally by Maxime Desouches, only two elected representatives voted against it: President Lédée and Mélissa Lake. Three members abstained (Romaric Magras, Rudi Laplace and Sandra Baptiste). All the others, with the exception of Marie-Hélène Bernier and Alexandra Questel who did not take part in the vote, voted in favor.
Aware of the cabs' confusion and discontent, President Lédée indicated that a meeting with the association's vice-president was scheduled for this Thursday. The aim of this exchange is to determine whether the presentation of a new, truly updated grid is necessary. "We're also going to look at whether we should withdraw the deliberation or leave it as it is, because even if it's not my choice, it's that of the elected representatives", Xavier Lédée points out. However, it seems hard to imagine that the drivers will agree to start the next season on rates dating back to 2018.