Minister says use of Trident IDs will cut out fraud by Transport Board commuters 

The use of the new Trident ID card by seniors for free travel on Transport Board buses is expected to bring an end to fraud and misuse of the old ID cards, says Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology Davidson Ishmael.

He disclosed in an interview with Barbados TODAY that there had been cases of commuters modifying the old laminated ID cards to make it appear that they fell into the category of elderly persons granted free rides – those 65 years or older.

“There are cases of individuals who easily manipulate that photograph to be able to change it to a red background to allow themselves, even if they are not at the age that allows, to be able to travel on the buses for free,” Ishmael said.

“The driver would notice the red background. He would ask no questions. He or she would oftentimes not look any closer at the picture to verify that it was the person. Once he saw that red background, he would allow the person to go and sit.”

However, the minister said, the use of the chip and pin Trident cards, under the tap-and-go system to be introduced on Transport Board-operated, buses would bring an end to this fraudulent activity.

Seniors will be required to pin their Trident IDs so they can tap card readers on the bus to ride free.

The new system was announced last week by the Transport Board to go into effect on October 1. But Prime Minister Mia Mottley said at a press conference on Tuesday that given concerns that some elderly folks would not be able to meet that deadline to pin their cards, they would be allowed to use either the old ID card or the digital one until January 31 2024, which is also the new date when the old IDs become invalid.

Ishmael explained that “the information on the card that is protected by the pin… allows that cashless system by the Transport Board to easily identify that this person . . . [is] 65 years or older”.

“So, it [Trident ID] just takes away some of those challenges in terms of fraud and other misuses and abuses that could take place in the system. It also allows the driver not to have to do any tabulation,” he added.

Ishmael explained that under the new system, the Government would be able to gather crucial data.

“What we are introducing here is a system – much of what existed previously but a lot more efficient, a lot more effective – that can be monitored and tracked in a better way, from the perspective of being able to see the data, being able to analyse how many citizens travel on the bus…very aggregated information, not specific information to say that Davidson Ishmael travelled on that day on this day.

“The Government has little interest in seeing what Davidson Ishmael’s travel pattern is, but it is good to see how many seniors are travelling on the bus at any given point in time, if there are peak periods, and then better decisions are able to be made from that data,” the minister said.

During her press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mottley said that as the Transport Board transitions to a cashless system that includes private operators in the Transportation Augmentation Programme (TAP), accurate billing would be required and the Trident IDs would assist in that regard.
She said that “part of the difficulty the Minister of Finance and the Transport Board had initially is that the numbers which have been submitted do not necessarily reflect the reality of Barbados’ existence in the last few years”. Mottley noted that ridership of pensioners increased significantly each year between 2019 and 2022, even with the restrictions due to COVID-19 – from 1.37 million in 2019 to 2.2 million in 2022.

“It is difficult for the officers who advise us to accept that the numbers increased at the very time that you placed restrictions on movement to the whole country,” she said, adding that the new system would therefore be a “win-win” for everyone.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb