PSVs still battling low loads

Public Service Vehicle (PSV) owners appear to be still at odds with the Government over a proposal to include coaches and taxis in the public transportation sector and at least one PSV group claims the move is cutting into their profits at a particularly difficult time for the sector.

But officials from both the Transport Authority and the Transport Board say the measures are in the interest of the public and have been providing much-needed assistance on certain routes at a time when they can only operate at 60 per cent of capacity.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley last month outlined plans to use coaches to boost the public transport service and revealed that taxi operators could also be employed to ferry commuters.

However, on Sunday night, Chairman of the Association of Public Transport Owners (APTO) Kenneth Best complained that PSVs are already struggling with a reduction in commuters on routes that are saturated with PSVs.

He suggested that authorities scrap the directive for public transport vehicles to operate at 60 per cent capacity and instead demand that all commuters wear masks and be sanitized by conductors when they enter the vehicles.

“The current situation is being made worse when you have BTs and ZMs coming to compete for limited passengers…and it is not fair and it is not right. No PSV can just move from being a PSV to being a BT or a ZM and I believe that we have enough PSVs to service the island in conjunction with the Transport Board and the TAP [Transport Augmentation Programme],” declared Best on CBC’s current affairs show, The People’s Business.

“This question of 60 per cent capacity should be eliminated and it should be mandatory that all commuters and conductors wear masks. If the bus is fitted with a conductor, you could be sanitized and instead remove standing passengers from the minibuses,” he added.

Best contended that PSVs were being made to suffer the actions of successive governments which failed to rationalize over-subscribed routes and are now cutting into their profits by adding other vehicles.

Similar concerns were expressed by the Alliance Owners of Public Transportation (AOPT) shortly after the PM’s announcement.

However, acting Director of the Transport Authority Maria Boyce – another panellist on the programme indicated that the 60 per cent maximum operating capacity was necessitated by the ongoing Covid-19 state of emergency and ought to be maintained.

“This is in place until the end of the state of emergency and it is not envisaged that it will go on forever, but we must also remember that the TAP programme has allowed an increase in the number of available vehicles to support the Transport Board,” she added.

This claim was substantiated by Chief Executive Officer Fabian Wharton who revealed that in many cases, the coaches and taxis temporarily added to the system would assist routes not heavily serviced by PSVs.

He revealed that with between 80 and 100 buses in its fleet on a given day, the Transport Board has also been forced to reduce its numbers to as little as 19 passengers at a time.

While describing assistance through TAP as a “God-send”, he revealed that the additional assistance is necessary.

“We had to move to a 20-minute service on the ABC highway route… so that persons who have been left behind as a result of the regulations don’t have to wait another 30 to 45 minutes and we obviously had to move buses from other routes to make that possible,” said Wharton.

“The Government is systematically reopening businesses and some are still working with short staff while others are ramping up business as they go along. So as an organisation, we have to be able to move those people. So moving BTs and ZMs allows us to send a feeder vehicle before the regular routes to ensure that we do not leave anyone in the terminal,” he explained.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb