JUTC reeling from spare parts shortage
Published:Friday | June 10, 2022 | 12:05 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
The State-owned Jamaica Unban Transit Cooperation (JUTC) is presently reeling from an acute shortage of spare parts to service its fleet of buses.
An inside source, speaking on conditions of anonymity, told The Gleaner that the company is having difficulty servicing the buses because of a lack of parts.
The source said the buses are constantly breaking down, a situation that is now frustrating drivers.
Managing director of the JUTC, Paul Abrahams, has attributed the shortage to logistical issues with shipping and more recently, the war in Ukraine.
“The only issue we have with spare parts is the challenge to get them from abroad because of the shipping line, which is a logistical challenge faced by many companies throughout the world. There is no other challenge as it relates to spare parts,” Abrahams disclosed.
According to him, the money that was granted by the Ministry of Transport and Mining for the purchase of spare parts has already been paid over to the suppliers. The purchase orders for the supply of parts have been drafted and the company is now awaiting the shipment of the supply.
In a surprise move last Friday, managing director in charge of operations at the company, Owen Smith, quit his job. His sudden departure forced the JUTC to issue a statement that said that Smith had resigned from the company and has moved on to pursue other interests.
When contacted by The Gleaner, Smith affirmed that he left because he was offered a senior managerial post elsewhere. He dispelled reports that he had a fallout with Abrahams over issues relating to spare parts that led to his departure from the company, adding that they parted on friendly terms.
He defended his tenure at the JUTC, stating that he was able to turn the company around in one year by digitising all the road operations and get it to a point of efficiency.
He further disclosed that the next step is for the company to automate the logistic road operation and once that happens, the commuting public will be able to look on their phone and see when a bus is coming.
According to Smith, the total procurement for the JUTC is $1.4 billion of which a significant sum goes to purchasing spare parts.
“The average age of the fleet is over 11 years, and there are buses in the fleet that have exhausted their mileage lifeline of over a million miles, so parts began to fail,” he revealed.
Smith said the maintenance team is facing a difficult task to keep the buses on the road as a result.
Communications manager Cecil Thoms said the company presently has about 280 active buses in its fleet, a far cry from the 400 it advertised on its website.
According to Thoms, the average daily roll is about 230. He was unable to say if the decline in the number of buses in the fleet is because of spare parts issues.
The state-run entity has been plagued by issues with senior management and middle management personnel not possessing the minimum qualifications for the positions they held.
A performance audit of the company last year by the Auditor General’s Department revealed that several senior management personnel lack the minimum qualification, as well as an absence of transparency in the company’s recruitment practices.
This prompted the board to issue a request and set a deadline of March last year for senior managers to upgrade their qualifications.