PSV bad behaviour under scrutiny as schools reopen

Eighty-two public service vehicle permits were suspended between December 2025 and July 2026 because of unruly behaviour on the nation’s roads, according to Transport Authority Director Ruth Holder.

Holder said increased video surveillance has enabled the government to take action against indisciplined drivers.

Her comments came at a press conference held by the Ministry of Transport and Works and the Ministry of Education ahead of the opening of the new school term on Monday, September 7.

“We’ve been meeting with PSV owners, with drivers, with operators in general since December of last year; we’ve been taking serious action, and I know that the videos have been going around social media,” she said. “Once we have the evidence, we’ve been taking action against those operators.”

Holder said that most of the time, operators are held responsible, but sometimes action is also taken against owners.

She said meetings have been scheduled with operators who break the law to decide what action to take.

“Since December of last year, up to the end of July, we have suspended 82 permits from operators, in some instances owners as well,” she revealed. “We meet with them; in some instances, we give them a warning. In some instances, we suspend their permits for 14 days. We actually suspended one for up to 42 days.”  

The Transport Authority director said the police are also helping by providing assistance or enforcement where necessary.

Mark Haynes, the acting CEO in charge of communications and public education at the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), also strongly criticised the disrespectful and reckless behaviour of some PSV operators.

He called for a crackdown on bad behaviour ahead of schools’ reopening.

“You’re doing a public service; you cannot behave badly,” he advised operators. “You cannot use obscene language on the buses. You cannot have our children exposed to profanity on the vehicles, and school starts next week, and I make another clarion call to ask these guys to desist from using any kind of profanity on vehicles. 

“Whether the vehicles have schoolchildren, adults, or whomever; they are commuters, and they should not be subjected to this kind of behaviour. It has to stop.”  

Haynes said reckless driving puts drivers’ and others’ lives at risk.

Haynes explained that while schoolchildren are attracted to certain vehicles because of the music, hearing inappropriate lyrics can negatively affect them in the classroom.

“That playing of music should be stopped; that should not continue because schoolchildren gravitate towards these vehicles, because they go on them and they get a lot of nasty lyrics, when they get in the classroom, their brain is filled with filth, hence they cannot take the education as they should because they’re interested in catching this particular ZR, that particular minibus, because that music attracts them.”

He also said that parents should guide their children about the music they listen to while travelling to school.

The head of the Alliance of Public Transport Operators, Anwar Nana, called for random drug testing of some drivers.​

“We went as far as requesting the ministry arrange random drug and alcohol testing for workers. We do not condone that type of behaviour,” she said. (LG)