~ Politicians who were renting licenses will now feel the squeeze. ~
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Minister of TEATT Arthur Leo Lambriex recently conducted a major clean up with the list of transportation licenses. Several politicians who are holders of several of these licenses that are in the names of relatives and friends and have been leasing out these licenses would have to now seek other ways of leasing out their licenses.
SMN News learned that Lambriex issued about 30 licenses to persons who are holders of Dutch passports but were renting licenses from former politicians.
Lambriex also issued about 15 licenses to persons who are permanent residents of the island but have been also renting licenses and have been operating in the transportation industry for a number of years.
The application process was done in August and September 2023.
Transportation licenses have now been issued to persons who have been plying the trade without Dutch nationality but were operating as “help drivers” for years while paying the politicians who have been using them to exploit those licenses.
License holders will now have to submit a number of documents, while they also have to register their help drivers at USVZ. The licenses for helping drivers will be issued on a monthly basis since there has been an abuse of the system. The license holders will also have to submit a doctor’s certificate to show that they are unable to operate. SMN News understands that the existing transportation policy has been updated and upgraded while there will be stricter enforcement of the regulations in place.
A clean-up was also done on the car rental plates that the government had been ordering and were not picked up. The Minister of TEATT has since granted the extra plates to car rental companies that have requested them. The manufacturing of 2,900 plates was costing the government much-needed funds each year while only about 500 of those plates were picked up.
According to information provided to SMN News, the Minister did not lift the moratorium on transportation licenses. Still, a mere reshuffling was done in order to relieve help drivers from the monthly expenses since they were paying as much as $800.00 monthly to the license holders.
