Knutsford Express heading east to St Thomas
CEO says company will begin transportation service to parish in January 2025
Published:Saturday | March 23, 2024 | 12:10 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
TRANSPORTATION MOGUL Oliver Townsend says residents of St Thomas can now look forward to luxury passenger and courier transportation services via his Knutsford Express bus services come January 2025.
“We are almost islandwide, and come January, we hope to serve the one parish that we are currently not offering direct service to, which is St Thomas,” revealed Townsend, Knutsford Express’ chief executive officer.
He made that revelation on Thursday while addressing the first biennial president’s luncheon of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), held at the S Hotel in St James.
“We are looking forward to completing that whole network,” he said of the almost two decades old Knutsford Express company. “Maybe at that point we can circumnavigate the island.”
Townsend, whose company prides itself with the delivery of safe, reliable, comfortable, and cost-effective scheduled services from convenient locations on Jamaica’s north and south coasts, including connections to Portland, St Mary and Negril, says service to St Thomas is now possible as a result of road improvement works.
“To ensure our service can survive, you need roads and safe roads and we have observed that the road network has improved,” Townsend told a gathering of present and past presidents of the MBCCI.
“We have several guiding values, but safety is one of the pre-eminent ones, so you need roads and safe roads to operate on and grow,” he explained.
He says his company’s success today has to do with the level understanding of the transportation sector among his directors, and the high-quality services offered by the approximately 300 employees, within the past two decades.
However, Townsend said that his company will also need to build out its technology platform, given the role it is playing in the global landscape.
“Technology is playing an increased role and if we are going to grow as a town, city and as a country, we are going to have to embrace more digital forms of technology,” the Knutsford Express CEO argued.
“Already we can see that our customers are gravitating to that by buying services online, but we’re still a far way from integrating digital technology,” he said, while expressing appreciation to his dedicated employees and customers for their support.