UCAL to be transformed with help from Transport Ministry 

By Marlon Madden The Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources has entered an agreement with the repairs and maintenance firm, United Commercial Autoworks Limited (UCAL), which officials say should result in growth and major improvement in the operations of that company. During the signing ceremony on Friday, officials indicated that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) made provision for critical training and building of the capacity of UCAL staff. “There is still some work to be done, but we have been able to look at the skills set we have in the ministry and look at how we can work with them to train their staff to help us complement what they are already doing to improve the operations of UCAL,” said Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw. The MOU also makes provision for the ministry to provide UCAL with various equipment to help ease the challenges of the lack of equipment to repair buses. It also provides for changes to be made to the structure of UCAL in order to improve its operations. Bradshaw noted that leading up to the MOU, an audit of the operations of UCAL was carried out to identify specific areas for improvement, strengthening, and building technical capacity. She said the agreement was critical as the Government seeks to phase out diesel-engine buses and transition to a promised Mass Transit Authority. Declaring that the MOU will allow Barbados’ public transportation system to “get back on track”, Bradshaw said the partnership also spoke to the government’s commitment to empowering and enfranchising workers. “With this type of agreement, they can then enter discussions with banking institutions or otherwise because they have assets now that they can be in a position to leverage. That gives them a better position than they are in currently and they will be able to transform the operations of UCAL to make it more efficient,” she explained. She noted that there were currently some 49 electric buses on the island and another ten were to be imported by year-end, with others to follow. She said recent discussions were held regarding the planned Mass Transit Authority and a “transition committee” would be put in place to work with labour and the Government for the transition to occur. Officials agreed that there have been many ups and downs at UCAL over the years, but added that the partnership with the Ministry of Transport was the beginning of a journey to ensure workers can be “empowered” and operations are improved. Bradshaw said three locations have been examined for a new state-of-the-art home for UCAL’s operations for the future: its current Weymouth, Roebuck Street location, the MTW workshop and the Mangrove facility. “Each of them requires some level of capital investment to improve on. The key thing is that in the interim, they will have to operate at different locations. Eventually, the hope is that they have a state-of-the-art facility that will accommodate all the equipment that they require to repair,” said the minister, though not giving an indication of a timeline or possible cost. General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Senator Toni Moore welcomed the partnership, saying it was an important step in the transformation journey of UCAL. “What we will have to be doing during the next nine to 12 months is work to ensure at the administrative, management, technical and non-management levels that it is adequately resourced,” said Moore. “This MOU is a commitment to the financing and resourcing of UCAL at different levels for efficiency. The journey continues,” she added. “We are committed to seeing this through to the end. We do not anticipate that UCAL will only be servicing the government, but this represents an opportunity to allow UCAL to branch off and take off in all the other revenues that were intended for it back in 1997. So this is a big one for UCAL workers and the BWU workers and Barbados in general, that we can actually do what we want to do.” (MM) Photo caption: Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw (left), Chairman of UCAL Hillford Murrell (centre) and BWU General Secretary Toni Moore at the MOU signing.]]>