Isle of Man taxi drivers reject on-demand minibus review

Bus Vannin rolled out the on-demand minibus service for the north of the island in 2018

Isle of Man taxi drivers have rejected a review which found the government's on-demand minibuses were "unlikely" to be anti-competitive.

The services started in 2018, serving the north of the island and the ports.

Industry body Unite Taxis said the independent investigation into the Bus Vannin initiative had "fundamental flaws in its definition of the market".

The Department of Infrastructure (DOI) has welcomed the review as a "fair appraisal of the situation".

The demand responsive transport, which replaced scheduled bus services in several villages, was judged to have had a "limited impact" on taxis in the report.

'Destroy jobs'

Unite Taxis secretary Mike Birchall said the review, conducted by accountancy firm Grant Thornton on behalf of the Office of Fair Trading, failed to recognise pre-booked taxis were already providing a demand responsive service.

He accused the government of trying to "steal as much work from taxis as possible", and said the suggestion that Bus Vannin had entered a new market was a "load of rubbish".

"Buses were never thought of as picking you up at your back door and then dropping you back there," he said.

He added that the island-wide roll out of this form of public transport would have a "devastating effect" on the taxi trade and would "destroy jobs".

In a statement, the DOI said the dial-a-ride offer had helped passengers in rural areas who would "struggle to afford taxi fares".

A spokesman for Bus Vannin confirmed the operator had applied to the Road Transport Licensing Committee to extend the dial-a-ride service in the north to include Friday and Saturday evenings.

A licence would also be sought to offer the same services in Dalby, Ballamodha and St Marks, where "few buses run", to link passengers to the main network, he added.

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