PSV eye service boost, tax ease

The public service vehicle (PSV) industry could be shifting into high gear in the coming months with several improvements in its service as officials tackle complaints from the travelling public and make the industry more resilient, Barbados TODAY has learned.

At the same time, the privately-owned PSV operators will be seeking an ease in fees and taxes from Government two years into a 75 per cent bus fare hike as they blame the COVID-19 pandemic for meagre earnings.

But some of that Government assistance could depend on the sector providing evidence that it had “cleaned up its act”, this newspaper has been told.

That message is likely to come from the Prime Minister, whom the spokesman from the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) said the industry is keen to meet next week to chart a new route for PSVs in the nation’s public transport mix.

Confirming the developments to Barbados TODAY,  AOPT Chairman Roy Raphael said the fuel tax was seriously “creating some problems” for operators especially now that earnings were dramatically down.

He also reported that over the past two years the sector has been trying to ensure “a clean slate” on a number of complaints against PSVs.

In addition to having a command centre and a PSV complaints hotline, more operators wear uniforms and fewer drivers go off route, while there has been less drinking on the job and a “rapid” decline in the playing of loud music, Raphael declared.

“We are getting fewer complaints,” he said.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced Thursday evening that Government officials are set to meet with PSV representatives sometime next week to discuss a new direction for the industry to ensure its resilience in the ongoing pandemic and what role Government could play.

She said: “I know you are hurting, I hear you. I am going to meet with you next week and I am going to meet with the tourism sector next week as well as we plan out going forward because believe you me, we have a duty to bring back this economy to some level of stability.”

As Parliament met this week, Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Kerrie Symmonds said while he understood the industry’s financial plight, the current small business stimulus was perhaps “not the best possible route to assist them”.

But, giving the assurance that some form of assistance was on the horizon, Symmonds explained that following a meeting with PSV officials last Friday, he requested that they “come back in a matter of two weeks from then” with a clear outline of the “major priority areas” to “lift the sector up and transform it”

Symmonds said: “I give the House the undertaking that I will, with the minister responsible for finance in the Ministry of Finance, rethink and rework a programme of policy which we can look at with regard to this important aspect of public transportation in Barbados.”

Raphael said the AOPT has already taken the initiative to shift gears by recently launching a Meet the Chairman programme to allow people to talk directly with the association’s members about ways to improve the industry’s image.

A legal forum is also to be launched to help operators familiarize themselves with the laws governing PSVs.

Raphael told Barbados TODAY that AOPT recommended to Government a policy that would require mandatory training in several areas.

He said: “There are some laws that will have to be put into operation so that the police officers can govern. What we are saying, for example, make it mandatory that all PSV operators must be trained and certified before they can get their licence renewed. We don’t want to have discrimination so it would be across the board including route taxi operators. We are already designing a programme for that.”

Pointing out that eight of ten PSV conductors were “uncertified”, he said a serious judgment call would also have to be made on how those individuals are employed.

And in light of the death of a passenger on a minibus on Monday, Raphael said the grouping would be recommending that it becomes mandatory for all PSV drivers and conductors to have at least basic first-aid training, including CPR.

Raphael declared: “It is very critical. They are the first responders. If a child is choking there is nothing these guys can do. We had a situation where my van was travelling from Sugar Hill to Bridgetown one time and a fellow had an epileptic fit and the driver was so shocked he didn’t know what to do, the vehicle hit a wall and damaged the left side.

“So I am saying things like that and caring for the vehicle – checking the oil and tyres to make sure your safety measures. These are things we want to make compulsory for PSV conductors and drivers and even taxi operators too because a taxi operator taking a person to the hospital and he just stops breathing he is totally at a loss.”

There are also concerns among PSV operators about the location, lack of visibility and upkeep of some bus stops.

Raphael said he is pleased with the capacity limit for public transport from 60 per cent to 75 per cent starting on Monday.

He said they were also eager to meet the Transport Authority’s board, which was installed last November. (MM)