PSV team headed to China, India to source disability-friendly electric vehicles

A team from the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) will visit China and India in the coming weeks to seek out the best electric buses for privately-owned public service vehicle (PSV) operators.

This disclosure has come from the chairman of the AOPT Roy Raphael who disclosed that industry operators were paying more than $50 million annually in fuel.

Noting that discussions were ongoing with the Ministry of Energy in relation to the rollout of electric vehicles in the PSV sector, he said they were hoping to embark on a pilot programme with about 10 buses in the first instance.

“The time has come for us to go green because obviously, we cannot continue to pay $50 million a year in fossil fuel,” said Raphael who was a panellist on VOB’s Down to Brasstacks radio call-in programme on Sunday.

“We are still in discussion, but I just want to point out that we will identify at least 10 vehicles to start a pilot project as it relates to electric vehicles. So we will get back to the public on this very shortly.”

Raphael gave the assurance that the electric vehicles sourced for the PSV sector will be wheelchair accessible and disability-friendly, and he indicated that AOPT members will seek to have a meeting with representatives from the disabled community and the Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs on the matter.

“So that they can say to us what type of buses they would prefer because shortly we will be sending off a team to China and India to examine some of those buses,” he said, further disclosing that the AOPT has appointed a member of its executive, Kevin Scott, as a special envoy.

“His responsibility is to ensure that every vehicle we bring in must be disability friendly. We find that almost 100 per cent of our vehicles do not have the capacity to carry disabled persons,” Raphael said.

He added that while the AOPT was keen on sourcing buses for members to purchase, they must cater to the visually impaired and the elderly.

“We want to ensure that there is voice access so that persons will be able to know when is the next bus stop, that they are wheelchair accessible so that people can just go to the bus stop and have that access, as well as for the older persons who can’t climb the stairs,” he said.

Also on the radio programme was PSV driver Fred Gibson who said he was eagerly looking forward to the rollout of electric vehicles in the sector to help minimise carbon dioxide emissions.

“I feel it is a good idea,” said Gibson, who has been a PSV driver for four decades. “It will ease us in our payments [on] fossil fuel.” (MM) ]]>