Bus men counter cops - Transport operators form own inspectorate team

Sheldon Williams, Gleaner Writer

Effective tomorrow, subfranchise buses operating in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) will be monitored by an executive inspectorate team. The Joint Caucus of Transport Operators (JCTO) said Thursday that the team has been developed to keep an eye on the conduct of its own crews in the KMTR.

The team will also be tasked with maintaining standards, safety procedures, and discipline among private transport operators.This is being done in the context of a move to have police officers assigned specifically to monitor those operators.

Egerton Newman, president of the Transport Operators Development
Sustainable Service (TODSS), spoke about the development during a
meeting of private transport owners held at Rodney's Arms, Portmore, St
Catherine, on Thursday. He emphasised that it is not necessary for
sub-franchise operators to depend on monitoring by the Jamaica Urban
Transit Company(JUTC) to ensure discipline, maintaining that they can do
it themselves.

"It (the transit police body) will be made up of
senior transport operators - most of the presidents of the associations
- and will be a team of seven that will work three days per week,"
Newman explained. They will work six hours a day at intervals on
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

He expressed anger
at the imminent formation of the Transit Police Unit by the Jamaica
Constabulary Force (JCF) under an agreement with the Jamaica Urban
Transit Company (JUTC). "We are not in a police state and we need to
understand that the Transport Authority has a unit already. Who is the
JUTC? What powers they have that they can go to the Commissioner's
Office to get a police unit to deal with bus man? This is total madness
and it can't work!" Newman exclaimed.

The JCTO's
inspectorate team will be strategically deployed to locations in the
KMTR, including Half-Way Tree, Downtown Kingston, Cross Roads, Papine,
Stony Hill, and Washington Boulevard. Their powers will include removing
crews from buses if they are in breach of any
regulations.

"We can take them off the bus and ask
that the driver be removed and make recommendations to the Transport
Authority," Newman said.

The JCTO has also developed a
seven-point mandate that it wishes to be given immediate attention by
the Government and its agencies in order to protect the welfare and
livelihood of private bus operators. It was presented at a meeting of
presidents of private bus operators on Monday. The JCTO
is:

1. Calling for an immediate review of the $750,000
franchise fee for Coaster buses to operate in the KMTR, with a view to
reducing the cost.

2. Requesting a 60-day extension by
the JUTC for franchise holders to retrofit their units, including
paying the required fees for the 2014 contract
period.

3. Asking that the Transport Authority grant a
60-day extension to taxi operators to do their licence renewals as some
5,000 operators have been displaced by the Transport Authority through
the closure of16 taxi associations.

4. Requesting that
the Transport Authority officially reopen all closed routes islandwide
to accommodate operators who have been displaced by the
JUTC.

5. Asking that reasons be given for the closure
of 16 taxi associations and that those reasons be referred to a special
joint committee representing the taxi association, the Transport
Authority, and the Ministry of Transport.

6. Asking
that the proposed contract to be signed by sub-franchise holders be
given to the contractors at least seven clear days before signing or
payments are made.

7. Requesting that the Jamaica
Contract Commission be advised or notified of all franchises or
contracts granted by the JUTC so as to ensure no bias or nepotism in the
granting of subfranchise contracts.