An entrepreneur who invested $65,000 of her life savings into e-bikes has said the strict enforcement policy of the vehicles that began on 1 March has brought her business to the brink of bankruptcy.
Speaking at the People’s Progressive Movement ‘national listening tour’ event on 3 March at Constitution Hall in George Town, Juliet Levene said she had paid $50,000 for bikes, plus another $15,000 for shipping from overseas. That was before the government and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service announced a crackdown of enforcement of elements of the Traffic Act that require the inspection, registration, licensing and insuring of e-bikes with battery assistance.
“It has ruined our business,” Levene said. “It’s put a big damper on it – we’re out of a job. My business partner had to go and get another job.”
Levene, an ex-bus driver, said her Sama Bikes company had sold just two of the 135 e-bikes, ordered last August and which arrived in December – the same month government announced that strict enforcement of the Traffic Act requirements for e-bikes and e-scooters.
She said she had a healthy order book for the e-bikes, which cost another $15,000 to ship, before enforcement of legislation on registering and insuring the machines was announced.
“We had customers booked, ready to purchase, but right after this law came into force, they changed their minds. It was the costs, the insurance, everything,” she said.
“It’s very depressing. I don’t know what’s going to happen right now,” she said, adding that she’s trying to get a buyer for the bikes.
“We don’t have anything planned because we’re confused. We didn’t expect this.”
Levene added, “If the government was going to impose a restriction on e-bikes they should have given us time to prepare.”
She earlier fought back tears as she outlined her plight at the first session of the PPM’s ‘national listening tour’.
Levene told the Compass, “They should have given us more time. If they were going to implement this, they should have said 2027, so we would have known what was coming and what to do.
“This has cost us a lot of money and I don’t know why they’re doing this to us.”
Leader of the opposition Joey Hew told the meeting that the situation underlined the government’s rushed approach to business and a tendency to make decisions behind closed doors in cabinet.
He added, “There could have been more notice. There could have been grandfathering. There could have been assistance for people who invested heavily in these forms of transportation.”
Hew said, “That is unfortunate – this is another decision that the government, when they made this decision, they made it in Cabinet.”
Roy Tatum, the PPM MP for Red Bay, said that people who had earlier bought an e-bike believed that it did not need a licence or insurance if it did not go faster than 15 or 18mph.
“That’s what the government was telling us,” he said.
He added that people had understood that they would not need insurance.
Tatum said that people who had earlier bought the machines should have been allowed to continue to use them under the old rules.
He added, “You should have been allowed to use your e-bike if you had bought one.”
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Provided the e-bikes are limited to, say, 20mph, and are not self-propelled without the need to pedal, they should not require a licence or insurance
I feel sorry for this lady whose business had been destroyed by this overly restrictive new law.
I wanted to buy one of her bikes but with the new laws, I don’t want it if it’s given to me free.
Lady could have sold off the bikes if legislation was 2027 or 2028. This is what the government does. Rush and not grandfather. Same with immigration. They will change anything overnight on a whim, depending which way the breeze blows that day.
Prime example why this government is too hands on business and anti business in Cayman. It’s sad to watch.
This deserves a lawsuit against Government. This matter was totally mishandled and when that was revealed, Government acted retroactively to get Civil Service egg off its face!
Sue them Ms. Levene!
It looks like somebody saw someone making money off the e-bikes, complain to CMR, and then made complaints. Dress it up like a safety issue. They hate seeing such a business thrive and low income people bypassing insurance companies. Very typical. No wonder Cayman is becoming a stressful place.