For the time being, the Novelo's brothers have volunteered to take up the slack. Obviously a cruel irony that those labeled as the transport industry ruiners have become the redeemers, but that's what it is and for those stranded commuters, right about now, knowing them is loving them. Late this evening, David Novelo told Alfonso Noble that they are ready, willing and able.
David Novelo, National Transport
"We are pooling together our resources, our employees, and we just want to make sure that we going to be there for the commuters, we going to pick up the slack. If you realize, the bus we have right now is not painted, it's not fully ready to go on the road in terms of the painting, but bus is road worthy and we have it insured. We called the Commissioner of Transport and we indicated to him that we will be assisting the commuters today so that at the of the day the commuters are not the ones that pay the price for today.
Its unfortunate that the receiver has taken the decision to go on strike today because we had informed the Transport Advisory Council and the Commissioner of Transport, the Department of Transport, that the best solution to this problem was to meet with the receivers, ourselves, and the advisory council and try to come to some compromise. We indicated that we would available at anytime. Unfortunately it seems that the receiver has taken a strong point in not meeting and I think it has led to this."
Alfonso Noble,
The regulator has announced that 108 people have gotten road service permits, how does this affect your business?
David Novelo,
"It has to be spread fairly across the board and just as how it is good for National, it has to be good for other small operators as well."
Alfonso Noble,
Is this like déjà vu for you all over again because this is the kind of thing you were trying to prevent in the onset when you were trying to establish this one giant monopoly?
David Novelo,
"Well you know we are going to be preparing next week and we are going to be facing the media more often and discussing the $30 million. We will not be running away from it, we'll be explaining how it was spent and what went wrong with the whole project of it. But the most important thing at this moment is to ensure that the commuters are being taken care of. The bus business is what we know, that's what we know to do best so why not give it a second try."
As we noted, tomorrow, the Transport Department will meet to consider those road service permits that have not been fully paid up. The Novelo's receivership has paid up, over $100,000 paid this week, to make all its permits valid. They would wish now, and will not move from their positions until, the Transport Board moves against those sniper runs.
