Frustrated by persistent public complaints about the lawless behaviour of some Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) workers, the owners will be taking a proactive stance by launching the Safe Bus Initiative in the New Year.
Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael revealed, on Thursday, the organisation’s intention to embark on a campaign that encourages commuters to ride only on designated “safe buses” which will be identified by a special sticker.
“These [operators] are people that will be trained and there will be a stamp that will be stuck onto the vehicle saying ‘catch me, this is a safe bus’,” Raphael disclosed in an interview with Barbados TODAY.
“We hope that the public will come on board and that they will support it…. We can’t do it alone, we have to have everybody on board, which includes the public, the insurance companies, and all of those persons who have an interest in public transport. I think the time has come really for us to take back the roads in the sense that people need to understand that we rely heavily on the public.”
The AOPT chairman said the owners also wanted to hear the views of the public.
“Come next year, part of our plan is to do a walk through and have a discussion with the public about the behaviour of the PSVs,” he said.
Raphael’s comments came on the heels of an announcement by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw, in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, that the sector will soon be more strictly regulated to deal with inappropriate behaviour.
She said Transport Authority Regulations which will give greater teeth to the Transport Authority in enforcing road traffic laws, will be approved by Cabinet before the end of the year. The regulations will, among other things, place greater responsibility on the owners of vehicles for the conduct of their drivers and conductors.
Raphael insisted that “the majority of PSV operators are good people”. “There are just merely between 10 and 20 per cent of those persons continuing to create problems for us, between the ages of 18 and 25, and that is very concerning to us,” said the spokesman for PSV owners.
“…. But let me say up front that the association will not sit back and tolerate bad behaviour among those few people who continue to make the industry look bad.”
Raphael suggested that within the last two years, fewer people have been opting to use minibuses and ZRs. However, he suggested passenger numbers could increase with improved training among PSV operators.
“So, if everybody comes on board and training is offered and we are able to train the members of our staff, then it means you will see more people catching the public service vehicles. It is time that we as an association understand the cry of the public,” he said.
Meanwhile, the AOPT official is calling on Minister Bradshaw to meet urgently with key stakeholders in the sector to thrash out a number of outstanding issues, including parking for PSVs at late hours.
He explained that with the Constitution River Terminal being closed at 6 p.m. daily because of public safety concerns, the operators were constantly challenged to find adequate parking in the nearby Fairchild Street area and, worse yet, faced the prospect of being reported by police.
“We are still awaiting a meeting with the Minister of Transport, promised by her, when we would have put out 10 points to discuss. One of the issues would have been parking at night. So, it is really a concern to us as owners and representatives of the industry, in that we would like to have a sit-down meeting with the Minister and her team and the Transport Authority to see how best we can resolve the issue related to those buses out there,” Raphael said.
“Now, this is the Yuletide season and this is a good opportunity for us to capitalise on the people who are shopping late at night. But we don’t want to be able to provide transportation for them after hours but…end up spending the money before the law courts.”
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
