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The Ministry of Transport through Hon. Louse Zabaneh, Chief Executive Officer Chester Williams, and Director Anna Loague spoke of several progresses that the ministry is currently working on. One of the key points in today’s press briefing is the National Consolidated Public/Prive partnership, a merger between the bus operators. Hon. Zabaneh spoke about the progress regarding the merger.
Hon. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport: “With respect to first the work towards a national consolidated um public-private partnership company. At this time, the auditors are engaged in auditing the operations of the 21 bus operators who have agreed to participate in the process. When we met last time, I believe we might have been around 18, and now we have three more. So, in terms of market share, we are at 71 % of the market, who have agreed.”
Zabaneh spoke of the progress and purpose of the auditing.
Hon. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport: “What is being done really is for the auditors to find out what is the value of the operations of these members of the sector. In particular, they’re looking at the assets that they have and also doing a cashflow assessment as well. There are 31 operators, and this is specifically to that sector that services the intercity commuters, meaning from municipality to municipality. It does not include bus operators who are working from the villages. We hope to learn a lot of lessons from what we’ve been doing so far, and we will engage with the village operators as soon as is possible. The results of the audit will be used to create what is called an opening balance sheet. That is necessary as part of the prospectus that is being prepared that looks at both the operations and the financial viability of the sector.”
CEO Williams spoke of stricter implementation when it comes to bus drivers who are negligent, tardy, and insubordinate of their Road Service Permit.
Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport: “We have to make sure that bus operators operate within the confines of the law and within the confines of the conditions as outlined by their road service permits. We’re seeing that some of them are leaving the bus terminal on the schedule of other buses, which is utterly wrong. When that happens, then you would have, like for example, if you have a 4:30 bus and that bus goes to the terminal 4:50 remember, his run is for 4:30, goes to the terminal at 4:50 knowing that there’s a 5 o’clock bus, enters terminal at 4:50, automatically he’s taking passengers from the bus that is supposed to leave at 5. So come at 5 o’clock now, we’ll have two 5 o’clock buses, him and the one which is scheduled for 5. And because he would want to make sure that he rake and scrape all the passengers from the 5 o’clock bus, he’ll be racing with that 5 o’clock bus. It is wrong and the instructions that we have given to our people is that once that happen, we will cancel that run for that 4:30 bus.”
In response to a growing number of complaints from the wider public regarding tardy bus schedules, and unprofessional services, Director Loague was pleased to provide a solution to counter the complaints.
Anna Loague, Director, Ministry of Transport: “We’ve listened to the concerns of our Belizean populace where they have clamored for a direct communication to air their concerns with the ministry. And so with that, we have a hotline number, 613-3104, where we ask commuters to register their complaints, concerns, share videos, pictures of any infractions or any concerns that you may have with us and we will look into it and get back in touch with you in regards to that. So again, the number, the hotline number to call or WhatsApp, 613-3104.”
Out of a total of 31 bus operators, the Ministry of Transport has seen a record high of 21(71%) of bus operators signing up for the merger. With this new merger, it is anticipated that the bus operator will be able to provide a better service to its clients in terms of: reliable bus scheduling, upgraded buses, and newer payment method.
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