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AOPT in appeal for help, slams Govt over COVID relief

by Barbados Today
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With just over 3,000 public service vehicle and taxi operators not having consistent jobs for months, members of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) on Wednesday accused Government of turning a blind eye to their pleas for relief.

AOPT Chairman Roy Raphael said there was currently a lot of uncertainty within the industry, with many members being disappointed in the way the Mottley administration has handled the COVID-19 crisis for PSV operators.

Raphael said: “We would have made an appeal to the Ministry of Commerce on their behalf, to this day we have not heard anything. We have sent in close to almost 50 names to our Ministry of Commerce for assistance – the Ministry has offered nothing to the PSV sector, [but] we are still open to discussion.

“We want to have a discussion – talking to our partners a couple of days ago in the Caribbean, the Caribbean governments are moving to give subsidies and assistance to their public service vehicle operators in the Caribbean, and I believe this Government needs to do likewise. Having 3,000 operators off the road [and] not working, it really creates a challenge.

“Particularly for the conductors and bus drivers, a lot of these people are younger people, some of them just [arrived] into the business, not paid their national insurance [though] we are encouraging them to do so. So I am saying Government can sit with us, and again I am making this special appeal because last week Government met and had a discussion about staying home, we were not involved in the discussion… These persons decided to have no discussion with us, in my view it is disrespect. We [had] asked our members to stay home, we want to thank those people that did so to avoid any issues on the road.

Raphael, speaking to reporters as Rubis Fontabelle service station donated several fuel vouchers to the AOPT, also made an appeal to insurance companies, which he said are still charging maximum rates for coverage, although ridership has been down significantly for months.

“We are making an appeal to them right now that these are hard times and we expect that when good times are around, we are there to pay our insurance rates.” the PSV leader said. “Some insurance rates are as much as $15,000 to $19,000 a year…. So I think the insurance needs to step up to the plate, where I want to make a special appeal to the insurance companies to step up and give us some kind of assistance, through the association.” (SB)

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