Transport operators want training course to be mandatory

WITH PRAISE coming from various sectors for a series of workshops put on by the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) to train taxi operators as first responders, the organisation is now lobbying for the training course to be made permanent.

TODSS president Egerton Newman said the discussions have started with the Ministry of Transport and the Transport Authority to make the training course a requirement for the public transportation sector.

“We didn’t have enough time to train enough drivers, but training should be mandatory for operators to get their road licences renewed. What we want from the sector is for drivers tot be trained as first respondents,” Newman told The Gleaner, while attending the second to last Blue Ribbon First Responders workshop in Linstead on Saturday.

“In the first responders training programme, we have an overall customer service human development training, which will create easy access to PPV badges. So yes, that is the discussion we are having with the minister and the Transport Authority at the moment,” Newman disclosed.

The British Caribbean Insurance Company-sponsored training course that started earlier this year has been challenged by the coronavirus pandemic, but, despite this, TODSS has been able to complete training in St Thomas, Portland, Kingston and St Andrew and now St Catherine, with the final leg scheduled for Kingston and St Andrew next month.

REFRESHER COURSES

Newman said, as part of the mandatory training, he is lobbying for the road code manual to be included in the workshops to facilitate refresher courses.

“Some of our drivers and operators have gone through that manual 20 [to] 40 years ago and have not looked at it since. So they cannot remember the things in it that are important for road safety,” Newman said.

Kirk Brown, a public transportation operator for St Thomas who has completed the course and has been certified, described the first responders training course as enlightening.

“The importance of this course cannot be minimised. It was something new to us especially from the viewpoint of assisting road users and passengers if we come across an accident,” said Brown, adding that it makes him feel as if he is a part of the paramedics team.

Brown noted that the course should be mandatory for all public transportation operators, and there should be two-year refresher courses offered to those who have already done the training.

With some 60 first responders who received training since the start of the course, and 22 of them certified, Newman revealed that TODSS will be embarking on another initiative to promote safety on the roadways. He announced a 40-day road safety campaign that will also focus on a clean environment, to run from December 2, this year, to January 5, 2022.

The St Catherine leg of the training workshop was also sponsored by the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.