Three strikes…’and you’re out of a permit in new PSV rules’

Route taxi and minibus drivers face a new three-strikes rule as the Government goes after habitual offenders of public transport and road traffic laws, Minister of Transport and Works Dr William Duguid announced today in the House of Assembly.

The rule is the biggest feature of a number of regulatory measures under the new Public Transport (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which he introduced to lawmakers..

PSV operators who contravene any part of the regulation get three chances – a fine of possibly $1,000, another fine for a second offence and forfeiture of the operator’s permit or driver’s licence on the third conviction, according to the new regulations.

“There are certain regulations specific to owners and other regulations specific to drivers,” Duguid said.

The minister told the House the idea for the three-strikes rule was borrowed from Trinidad and Tobago’s example.

Duguid said: “The genesis of this actually came from the Trinidad legislation and we looked at the Trinidad legislation when we first looked at the Road Traffic regulations and we found that the Trinidad regulations were even more stringent. They required that after two contraventions of the law you would lose your permit and you would lose your permit for life not lose and get it back after a year. The permit was gone.”

The regulations were agreed on by key players in the PSV industry as well as Prime Minister Mia Mottley, he added.

Duguid said: “After meeting with the stakeholders in the sector and together with the Prime Minister we decided that that was a little tough and difficult and it would not be a full complete loss of your permit or licence and instead of a Two-Strike Rule we would go to Three Strike Rule. We have had agreement from all the players in the sector. We are now in a position where we are ready to bring the regulations.”

The Christ Church West MP said that the bill is seeking to “give some teeth” to the Transport Authority.

He told the House: “When the Transport Authority was first put in place in the latter part of 2007,  apart from the Bill there were supposed to be specific regulations accompanying that, unfortunately, those regulations were never put in place.

“The Transport Authority has met with us along with key stakeholders in the sector, the Public Service Vehicles, the Transport Board and we have come up with a series of regulations. We could not ask the Transport Authority to regulate the sector without those regulations in place.”

Duguid explained that the new bill brings together the Road Traffic Act, the Road Traffic Regulations and the Transport Authority Act and by changes to those it allows us to bring the regulations into Act.

The transport minister said: “We all know the PSV in Barbados have had a checkered past. Some of them sometimes flout the law. Some of them are off route. They stop at inappropriate places that are not bus stops.

“They overload the vehicles and by so doing they contravene the insurance that is required for them to transport the public.

“What the regulations seek to do is to reign in bad behaviour and bring that bad behaviour to an end so that we can have better control and better understanding of the sector. We recognise we have to bring control to the sector.

“We appreciate the work the PSV people do. At times we only have 60 or 70 Transport Board buses on the road but there are 600, sometimes 650 PSVs on the road. They are our partners in transport and we appreciate the work they do, the vast majority of them.”

Duguid also told lawmakers that the transport minister is currently reviewing the current public health restriction on public transport vehicles carrying no more than 60 per cent of their capacity.

“We are looking to see what we can do to improve the 60 per cent occupancy imposed due to COVID. I am in significant discussions with the Minister of Health to see what we can do to improve that. I believe we will be in a position to make an announcement very shortly about that occupancy level,” the transport minister said. (IMC)