TRUCKERS WEIGH TOLL

ANTICIPATION IS high among members of the local trucking industry about the expected cost of the May Pen to Williamsfield leg of the Highway 2000, which was officially opened by Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday.

The four-lane 27.5-kilometre corridor, which is free to motorists until December 31, is being touted as “a modern highway that the country can be proud of” and a symbol of the Government’s commitment to development.

A fee structure has not yet been announced for the US$188-million road, funded via a loan from China, but former general manager of the Port Trailer Haulage Association Ricardo Valentine said that already, there is concern about whether truckers will absorb the cost or pass it on to clients.

Valentine, the general manager of Zoukie Trucking, the country’s largest trucking and haulage company, said the current recommended rate for transport between Kingston and Mandeville per trip is US$798.

That may increase.

He called the expansion of the road a positive but said that there is a concern as it relates to how truckers pass on the fee.

“Any improvement in the corridors, especially when it shortens the journey, is always an advantage to trucking companies like ours. From that perspective, certainly, it would be a plus, but of course, you’re talking about if you now need to add a cost because it is not going to be free.

“Some of the members of the trucking fraternity would find it easier to pass on the cost than others – those who would have already charged a rate for delivery and most of the delivery comes out of the port of Kingston,” he said.

Valentine said truckers have not yet assessed whether the benefit of using the new leg outweighs the cost.

REDUCES TRAVEL TIME

The route is expected to reduce travel time from 15 minutes, the prime minister said, “making Jamaica a smaller place in terms of the time to travel”. The journey along the regular route normally takes 45 minutes.

The new leg of the highway would now also slash the travelling time from Kingston to Mandeville to roughly one hour and 10 minutes.

Holness said that while the new road, which was completed by China Harbour Engineering Company, may pale in importance to issues facing the general population, it is a step towards Jamaica’s development.

“This road, as distant as it may seem from your problem, is a step in improving the general quality of life for all Jamaicans,” the prime minister said during yesterday’s ceremony at the new Toll Gate Plaza in Clarendon.

Noting that the road will further connect the unemployed to jobs, he said that it also improves the response time of the security forces and delivery while lowering that cost in terms of agricultural output to markets.

“In so many ways, building your infrastructure improves well-being,” Holness said.

“… So I don’t want our citizens, who at this point are particularly frustrated, to undervalue and dismiss the importance of what we are doing here today. It may not seem immediately connected, but it is,” he added.

Holness said that the country is in a “a totally different place” than it was 10 years ago, where it now has economic growth, which is creating employment.

He said that his administration has now set its sights on the expansion of the leg that will go from Williamsfield to Hodges in St Elizabeth.

He said that the ultimate goal is to extend the East-West highway to Negril, bypassing Spur Tree Hill in the process.

Plans are already afoot, Holness said, but the expansion is expected to take some five years to come to fruition.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com