According to one of the illegal taxi operators, providing a car seat is the responsibility of the parents and not the taxi drivers.
He said there are no standard car seats available because different children have different heights and weights.
“We have to buy different car seats for different children and that is expensive on our part,” he said.
Police, he added, will not notice that there is no car seat because an illegal taxi’s windows are tinted.
“The police will not be able to look through the windows,” he said.
A passenger of an illegal taxi said he does not worry if illegal taxis do not have car seats as long as the driver drives safely.
When asked why he does not want to ride a legal taxi with car seat, he said the fares charged by legal taxis are “unreasonably” expensive.
An illegal taxi charges a flat rate $3 while a legal taxi’s flag-down rate is $2.50 and 75 cents per quarter of a mile.
Some tourists who boarded legal taxis said they paid a $20 fare from the Saipan airport to a hotel in Garapan.
