All cars carrying passengers in rural public transport must have a black plastic sticker which serves to distinguish taxis operating inside the country from those operating in Bujumbura city.
Taxis are required to have a black plastic sticker around them
Since 16 July, the police have seized taxis that do not have this sticker and fined their drivers with BIF 50,000 each, say taxi users met at the parking on 18 July, 2018.
They denounce an “arbitrary measure” which was not communicated to them before it was taken. .
These taxi users also complain about the durability of these stickers”. After washing cars two or three times, the stickers start fading. Will we be forced to pay for each new sticker? Wonders one of them adding that the black sticker required by the police costs BIF 7,000.
These drivers find that the stickers are unnecessary. “We had the stickers on our vehicles. They were enough to distinguish between taxi doing rural and urban transport,” says a taxi user.
They ask for more communication to prepare for any new measure and demand that the sticker be made of durable material such as paint.
Roger Bankibigwira, chief of the road safety police (PSR) says taxi users who are complaining are probably irregular. He accuses them of being irresponsible. “Otherwise, how would they denounce today a measure that was taken a long time ago? For him, the police have not taken a new measure but made a strict verification only.
He recalls that taxi drivers know for a long time that urban taxis must have the white or gray color while rural taxi must be stamped with an agency sticker and a black sticker around them.
Concerning complains related to the sicker durability, Bankibigwira recommends taxi users to complain to the direction in charge of inland transport which ordered those stickers. “Otherwise, the police must check if taxi users comply with that measure.”
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