AOPT calls for financial assistance to transport sector during lockdown

Members of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) are calling on the Government to seriously lend financial assistance to the transport sector, during the two weeks of national lockdown.

On Saturday, AOPT gave a brief update on the state of the local transport and commuting sector, going into the two weeks of national lockdown starting on February 3.

Mark Haynes, Communications and Marketing Officer of the group, admitted that the lockdown was necessary, as the country seeks to keep Barbadians as safe as possible as COVID-19 cases spike.

But he said just as mini-marts, hairdressers, water sport operators and others are going to receive monies from Government to help cushion the financial fallout expected, PSV (Public Service Vehicle) operators deserve the same.

“Let me make it unequivocally clear for the record – as it stands this is a humanitarian situation, the Government of Barbados has a responsibility as a government, to include any persons right now who are disadvantaged, [and] our PSV people are included. So if you help one, I dare say, as the former Prime Ministry of Trinidad said, we are not an ATM, but I am saying the Government has some kind of responsibility given that the workers have not put themselves in this situation … that at least for now they can try to help those [PSV workers] whose incomes have been reduced but virtue of what is going to [affect] the sector in days to come,” he said.

Though Haynes was sympathetic to the PSV operators who will have to work at reduced capacity during the lockdown, he urged them to not be delinquent in the payment of fees owed to NIS (National Insurance Scheme).

“It is incumbent on the workers to move with alacrity to pay dues to the NIS. As you get paid, pay in money, pay in something. Do not be negligent and do not be irresponsible, pay in something on a weekly basis [that] when something happens, you have something as the Prime Minister [Mia Mottley] has said, to keep your head above water,” he added.

Craig Banfield, Commuters Complaint Officer for the group, admitted that several PSV operators have been pulled off routes recently because of various infractions, but all of them are not affiliated with the AOPT.

“There have been a lot of ZRs and minibuses that have been pulled off from the route for various infractions, however I want to remind persons that it’s not all members of AOPT who have been pulled off the road. 

“When we get to a point when we realize that there are a lot of ZRS that are pulled off are not members of our association, we as an association try to make contact with the owners, to try and see if we can get everyone to be on board, because this is a very serious issue … Everyone that is in the industry has to work together to get the common goal at hand, which is a better transportation system,” he said.

There are currently around 700 PSVs on the road, with as much as 50 percent of them being off the road at times during the last year of COVID-19. (SB)