BT and ZM vehicles to end transport of commuters from July 1

Public service vehicle owners and operators are hoping to have the roads for themselves come July 1.

June 30 will be the last day coaches and taxis – BT and ZM registered vehicles – will be permitted to transport commuters as they see fit, Minister of Transport, Works and Maintenance Dr William Duguid declared last Friday during a meeting with minibus and route taxi figures.

During the meeting, which was also attended by Minister in the Ministry Peter Phillips and acting Permanent Secretary Mark Cummins, Dr Duguid explained that the COVID-19 directives only provided for BTs and ZMs to transport commuters on routes until the end of June.

But while that is good news for public service vehicles (PSVs), chairman of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) Kenneth Best says he is hoping those BTs and ZMs don’t enroll in Government’s Transportation Augmentation Programme (TAP).

He said this could still present problems for those in the PSV sector.

“The meeting was a cordial meeting to discuss the issues of whether or not the BTs and the ZMs would continue after. It was pointed out that the COVID-19 directives come to an end on June 30 and I am hoping and praying that the ZMs and BTs don’t go over into the TAP programme,” Best told Barbados TODAY.

“But if those people go over into the TAP programme there’s very little we can do as PSV operators and owners. It means those people would be working with the Transport Board and being regulated by the Transport Board in the TAP programme. As you are fully aware, the TAP programme came into existence to assist the Transport Board.”

Best admitted that while he understood BTs and ZMs being used when the COVID-19 restrictions limited PSVs and Transport Board to just 60 per cent capacity, there was no need for them now that PSVs and Transport Board could once again carry 100 per cent capacity.

He contended that if BTs and ZMs joined the TAP programme it would mean more competition for PSVs.

However, Communications and Marketing Officer of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Mark Haynes questioned how many BTs and ZMs would be interested in joining the TAP programme.

He said many of them had opted not to join the programme when it was first launched due to some stringent conditions.

Haynes though, admitted that with the tourism sector at a standstill, some BTs and ZMs might opt to join TAP to earn some much-needed revenue.

“Once they go into TAP they will be controlled by the Transport Board, so to go into TAP they will have to make an application and they will not be able to run the routes as they would like. They would have to go by schedules which is part of the regime to go into TAP so they would have to abide by the terms and conditions of the Transport Board,” Haynes said.

“It has to do with whether or not those workers are prepared to go into TAP with whatever conditions are there, whereas on the outside of TAP they can run the routes as they feel like on the road like a normal ZR.

“But if they really want to go you cannot stop them from going as it stands. Once they make the application and meet the criteria and go into TAP then it would be what you would call the inevitable. But I am not so sure if a large number of them want to go into TAP because some of them before were complaining that they do not have an interest in TAP,” he added.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb