Raphael questions why Transport Authority blanking AOPT

The association that represents some 300 members in the route taxi, minibus, taxi, coach and hired car sector has threatened industrial action if it does not get the ear of the Transport Authority.

Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael disclosed on Tuesday that the organisation was giving the chairperson of the Transport Authority Maria Theodore until next week Friday to respond to a letter requesting a meeting to discuss concerns affecting its members.

“Failing that, the association will have a press conference and announce the action which it will take,” Raphael warned in an interview with Barbados TODAY.

“From day one when the new board was appointed, the association wrote to the new chairman asking her for a meeting to discuss some of the issues that were there from the last chairman. The chairman has not acknowledged our letter. We have placed several phone calls to her; she has refused to contact us to say anything.

“We spoke to her secretary up to last week. We had a meeting with our association. Our association said we would speak to her one more time. But we had contacted the deputy chairman and had promised a meeting some three weeks ago, but nothing has happened,” Raphael asserted.

He described the approach of the new board as a standoff with the PSV body.

“For the first time in the history of the industry or the association, board members of the Transport Authority have had what we call a standoff because we never did the chairman anything. Why would she [have a] standoff against us?” the AOPT leader queried.

He insisted that it is important for the Transport Authority chairman to meet with his association to discuss several burning issues such as pirates on the roads, complaints against PSV operators, permits to ply the St Andrew route, and conditions of work at the Constitution River Terminal, the Speightstown Bus Terminal and the Cheapside Terminal.

“People call each time from St Andrew to say to us that they contacted the Transport Authority to say to them that they are interested in plying the St Andrew route. Up to yesterday, we got a youngster who said that for the last two years, he had been trying to get a permit to operate a ZR or taxi. He went to many interviews but he continued to fail,” the PSV sector spokesman said, adding that a certain class of persons has been more successful.

“We will give them one week to get back to us, and we will announce to the public what type of action the association will take. We have about 300 members of the association. People think that the association is Roy Raphael, but that is not so. We have taxis, we have hired cars, BT permit holders,” he said.

“So, therefore, I am suggesting to her to meet with the association so we can deal with some of the issues confronting us. Some of them are major, some are simple. She has up until Friday to do so.”

The Transport Authority chairperson has not responded to messages or calls from Barbados TODAY.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb