The Transport Authority is set to more strictly enforce regulations on public service vehicles (PSVs) this year, citing persistent behavioural issues on the roads.
The move comes amid growing tensions between licensed operators and unlicensed ‘pirate’ vehicles. Director Ruth Holder is adamant that while the PSV organisations continue to complain about the effects these pirates have on the sector, they must work on improving their members’ conduct.
“We are going to seek to implement the regulations that are before us in a more stringent manner . . . because now we have regulations that we can work with,” Holder told Barbados TODAY.
“The associations want things as they desire when they want them, but they don’t give consideration to all the other factors that come into play, come into being. So, they would tell you what they want, but they wouldn’t tell you what they are doing. I would want them to tell their members to behave themselves on the road.”
She added: “I would want them to tell their members that when they don’t behave and the Transport Authority tries to implement procedures to control them and make them behave, that they don’t run to the media and jump up in the air and run to wherever else they feel like running to. Speak to their members. Let us see an improvement in the sector. If we see an improvement in the sector, we [have] perfect justification for doing everything else. As soon as you try to discipline them and their members, the first thing they can do [is] fly to the media, fly to the minister.”
Holder explained that addressing the conduct of PSV operators is a priority in trying to deal effectively with the pirate issue.
“If, for example, we didn’t have so many challenges with the sector, we could focus a little bit more on the pirates. We have to deal with them constantly every day. I am sitting down here in my office and I can see three ZRs on River Road stopping in front of Starcom Network picking up passengers. Why? And they are going to talk about pirates,” the transit regulator declared.
Chairman of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) Anwar Nana complained that the authorities seemed not to be doing anything about the pirates who are not registered to carry passengers for a fare.
Nana alleged that drivers of these vans frequently change their licence plate numbers to avoid detection and warned that commuters travelling in these vehicles are not covered by insurance in the event of an accident.
The APTO leader said: “There are a number of vehicles that are going up and down the ABC Highway, on all routes, but you would find them more prevalent on the ABC Highway going from Speightstown to Oistins, you find them on Bayfield. These guys are not covered to carry public passengers, and it’s a danger to the public. The police hands are tied because they say they have to catch them in the act of taking the $3.50 bus fare.”
Nana added: “These fellows work every day, the police catch them…. The police take them off the road on mornings and on evenings they are back on the route doing the same thing They are so brazen that they work in front of the minibuses and ZRs and laugh at them…because, when we are paying $10 000, $15 000 in insurance, these guys pay third party, if they do pay, of about $1 000. There is no road tax to pay, there is no NIS; there is nothing they have to pay. They just invest $15 000, $20 000 in an old van and drive up and down the road collecting passengers.”
Nana cautioned that the situation was spiralling out of control and warned of the potential for retaliation from frustrated PSV operators, “because it’s their livelihood you are affecting”.
However, the Transport Authority director countered that while they have “evidence” of pirate operations, it may not be sufficient for prosecution.
Holder explained that her agency, the Barbados Licensing Authority, and the police work together and share information, but challenges remain.
“To determine that a person is a pirate or not a pirate, we have to have sufficient evidence to prove what the person is doing. We do have evidence in terms of the videos et cetera. But, in addition to all of the evidence that we have, we still have to make sure that what we are doing is justified,” she stated.
“Licensing Authority, [and the] Transport Authority do not have the relevant inspectors on the road. So, we rely on videos, et cetera from people – primarily with associations, primarily members of our staff, and primarily other people who are associated with the board of the Transport Authority to share information with us. But again, it is how do you capture these people, police these people or regulate these people.”
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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