JUST BEFORE noon last Friday, taxi operator Hopeland Scarlett sat outside his vehicle, patiently waiting for his first customer at a service station in New Kingston.

The day before, Finance Minister Audley Shaw announced a price increase on fuel, meaning motorists will have to pay $8.75 more for regular petrol and the ethanol-based E10. Scarlett was bracing for possible civil unrest.

"Well, yuh know once yuh raise gas everything going go up, so things going get harder. Dat ah the hardest part, but it nuh mek sense yuh shut down the country," said Scarlett, who has been a cabbie for 27 years.

Ten years ago, Scarlett says he was angered when Shaw's predecessor, Dr Omar Davies, announced a six per cent hike in fuel. That triggered a three-day islandwide riot that Scarlett says he supported.

Even though government has not increased gas prices since, Scarlett says things are tighter now for motorists, especially those in the transport business.

"Ten year ago things neva so hard like now, yuh coulda come out an' mek $5,000 an' si wha' yuh work fah," he said. "Now, it come in like nutten."

Jamaica's auto industry has changed significantly in the past 10 years. There was a boom in service stations while the used-car trade flourished. But, like Scarlett, those sectors are now singing the blues.

Global downturn

Ken Shaw, president of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association, says several factors have contributed to the stagnation of a once-thriving sector.

"The current global downturn and spiralling interest rates. A variety of things have hurt us," Shaw said.

He said at its peak, over 30,000 used cars were being imported into Jamaica annually from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. Only 19,000 vehicles have come in during the past two years.

Trevor Heaven has operated Heaven's Texaco Service Station in Manchester for more than 20 years. He says there was a service station boom in the aftermath of the protest 10 years ago. However, he is quick to point out that not everyone has benefited from that burst of entrepreneurship.

"Everybody in the business is fighting for the same dollar. What has happened is that a lot of retailers who were once profitable are now struggling," Heaven told Automotives.

There were just over 150 service stations in 1999. Heaven, a former president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association, estimates that number has increased to more than 320. The Davies' cess was withdrawn immediately after the protests.