They say tourists are being scammed by lawbreakers who are hard to spot, and even harder to track down.
"They are renegades," said Gareth Sakakida, Hawaii Transporation Association.
Dozens of commercial vehicles including limousines, vans and shuttles have been hitting the streets looking for passengers but are doing it illegally.
"They don’t have the proper PUC authority and who knows if they are paying the proper taxes and fees if any at all," said Sakakida.
Complaints from licensed commercial vehicle companies, tourists and Waikiki residents show rising concern over vehicles being used to transport people around the island that are not properly licensed, marked or documented.
"Our visitor industry is very fragile and we don’t need stories to go on twitter and YouTube and whatever I got ripped off by this van driver," said Bob Finley, Waikiki Neighborhood Board.
Officials say sometimes the illegal shuttles steal PUC numbers from other vehicles or try to "rent" the numbers. Some don’t use any numbers at all.
"When you have people who are not running according to the laws we can‘t find these people," said Sakakida. "There’s little recourse for the person who is being scammed."
Some tourists report being gypped, over charged and left stranded. But tourists aren’t the only ones getting ripped off. Marilyn Mohamed owns and operates Aloha Waikiki Shuttle and says someone tried to peel off her her PUC numbers from her buses.
"Somebody messes with our buses they try to cut the straps for air," said Marilyn Mohamed, Aloha Waikiki Shuttle.
The Hawaii Transportation Association says it’s difficult to crack down on the forged PUC carriers because they are always on the move, hard to identify and you need a list of the license numbers along with a list of registered vehicles.
"You will see three of four trolleys backed up because they cant discharge or pickup their passengers," said Finley.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
