PSV owners want passenger limits raised

Despite a rising tide of coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths linked to the highly contagious Delta variant, public service vehicle owners intend to resist any effort by Government to further limit the number of passengers they can carry, a key industry spokesman declared on Thursday.

Mark Haynes of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), said he does not believe that even as the Delta strain continues to run rampant there is a need to reduce the PSVs’ 75 per cent capacity.

Haynes told Barbados TODAY he was incensed by the number of callers to the Voice of Barbados radio talk show Down to Brass Tacks Thursday who suggested that fewer commuters should be allowed on PSVs.

He maintained there was no logical reason to reduce those numbers and in fact, suggested that PSV operators are actually hoping that number would be increased to at least 80 per cent capacity.

Haynes said: “If we reduce those numbers how would we get the commuters move then? How are we going to get them home and to their various places of work? That is my retort to that because that is nonsense. What happens to the commuters on the street? We have to be concerned about those people as well.

“I accept that safety is paramount in this and we know that this is a crisis situation which has to be carefully handled, but not to the extent where the vehicles should be taken off the road or that they should reduce it downwards from 75 per cent. I don’t agree with that at all and I will fight to the bitter end if Government moves to look at the PSV sector with the view to removing the 75 per cent in a downward way.

“Furthermore, we were hoping for at least 80 per cent. If all of the protocols are followed I believe that we can ride through this storm. It is not an easy situation, I know it is hard but I do not think that we are unreasonable.”

The AOPT’s Communications, Information and Marketing Officer argued that commercial aircraft were not limited passengers during the pandemic, despite having close seating arrangements.

He said that PSVs had suffered significant financial losses from the pandemic and blamed the decreased number of commuters because of the capacity restrictions, schools being closed, the nightly curfew and the fuel tax as some of the main reasons.

He insisted that once PSV workers and commuters alike follow the protocols there should be no major issues.

Haynes declared: “Right now the sector is under severe pressure and the figures continue to dwindle, school children are at home, ridership is down, the sector is under enormous pressure because of the hike in the fuel tax and we have ther miscellaneous costs with which to deal ith.

“I think that if all of the protocols are followed by all of the workers in the sector I think we can come out of this. We are all in his together so it has to be a national, sensible conversation. I do not believe that the PSV sector should be under siege and under attack like this.”

Haynes suggested that mobile units could be laced in bus terminals to test PSV workers for OVID-19.

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)