The two main bodies which represent public service vehicle (PSV) operators and owners have slammed as ‘total madness, untenable and ludicrous’ Government’s decision to limit fuel access to specific days.
Chairman of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) Kenneth Best told Barbados TODAY his members had complained that they were being denied gas because of their surnames.
Last week, Government announced that supermarkets, hardware stores and gas stations would reopen and that consumers would only be allowed to conduct business on particular days based on their surnames.
But Best expressed shock that the measure was extended to PSVs.
He said: “As far as I am aware PSVs are part and parcel of the essential services and it is total madness to have minibuses, taxis, ZRs, all part of the essential services and saying that you have to wait until it is your shopping day to full up a PSV with diesel, which is performing yeoman service in these difficult times.
“I am not sure if persons at the gas stations are misinformed as to what to do but we need to get the communication correct. I know these are trying times and it is unprecedented times but if you sit down with all of the stakeholders then they would be able to give some insight as to how the operation goes.”
Mark Haynes, communications and marketing officer of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), also told Barbados TODAY he was at a loss as to the new policy.
He contended that PSVs should be allowed to fill up whenever they needed.
Haynes said: “Quite frankly this situation is untenable. The system where they have the alphabetical order does not suit this sector. This sector is deemed and characterized as an essential service, therefore, that cannot work for the PSV sector.
“The PSV sector, as it stands, is having a very hard time because of COVID-19. We suffered a major blow and this is debilitating as it stands.
“You cannot have a situation now where the Government decided to bring some changes to the curfew whereas a few more persons will be on the road, the vans are already hardly working because they are not many people to commute and now you have a few persons to commute, now you have the vans being told by the attendants that they are not A, B, C, D, E or F so they cannot get any diesel. That is absolute nonsense and this cannot work.
“We are an essential service and we are diametrically opposed to us being under that same type of scrutiny in terms of an alphabetical order system.”
Haynes said this could lead to a situation where PSVs in some instances would be unable to work because they had no diesel and commuters would be left stranded.
He called for the “ludicrous” policy to be revisited in “a very expeditious manner”.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
