The transportation industry today stands very much like it did in December when the Novelo's Bus Company collapsed. There is no one provider that is servicing the entire country and runs are generally regulated by the Transport Board. But while the transportation sector is still running with a smattering of providers servicing the vacuum left after the Novelo collapse, tonight there is a new entity trying to make an entry into the industry. They call themselves the Belize Bus Drivers Cooperative and they are trying to build a company from the remains of the old Novelo's Bus Company. Alfonso Noble found out more.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
These persons who gathered at the bus lot on Faber's Road are all former employees of the Novelo Bus Line company that closed its operations in December of last year. Now they have come together as a group to form the Belize Bus Drivers Cooperative in the hope of getting back their jobs and at least a piece of the company they once served. Anna Young is the cooperative secretary and she says the Atlantic Bank is ready to finance them.
Anna Young,
"We have the support of the bank, Atlantic Bank, we have spoken to the manager there and she has told us that they will support us financially and they are giving us the buses so all we need right now is to get the permits from the Transport Board."
But as they await permits for their runs, young says they already have equipment to make their runs.
Anna Young,
"The buses that we have here are in good condition. Most of these buses are brand new buses that we had purchased just before the receivership got closed so our buses are operational."
Alfonso Noble,
How will company work?
Anna Young,
"Each member of this cooperative who are ex-employees, ex-drivers, ex-staff members, would be able to purchase one of these buses so they will be responsible for all their maintenance and everything. But they won't be able to come in and say they want to get a bus and go out there to the Transport Board and get a permit. The cooperative will be responsible for assisting everybody with the permits, they will get all the permits together, all insurance, everything that they need to pay, and they will be able to purchase fuel in bulk so at the end of the day, each member will be able to come in and pay an administration fee, a fee towards fuel, and everything so it will work.
We had submitted an application to the Transport Board and they will determine which runs they will be giving us and we will be operating from this compound here and we will have personnel here to organize the bus schedules that we will be getting permits for. We are starting with about fifty buses and we wanted to do runs countrywide; Belize-Cayo-Belize, Corozal-Belize, Belize-Dangriga. We are not expecting to do a run probably every hour, we have chosen which times we would like to run because we have been out there and we have been noticing the backlog of people being left on the road so we know more or less what times people are traveling the most."
Alfonso Noble,
There are those who would argue that basically you are cherry picking, you are going to look at the best runs, you're going to take those, and that is what you are going to apply for.
Anna Young,
"We are not picking just peak times when people are traveling, we will be running our buses throughout the entire day, just that we have certain times when we don't want to be competing with other bus owners."
But even if they don't want to be competing with other bus owners Young says that after almost two months without a job, they're eager to get going.
Anna Young,
"We have been out of a job from since the 22nd December and we have families to feed, we have bills to pay, we have loans, we have mortgages-we have a lot that we need to pay and a lot of these people having driving buses most or all of their lives and so we desperately need to get this thing going because we are out of a job and we need out jobs back."
And it is with that in mind that this morning, fittingly enough, they boarded a Novelo's Bus and headed to Belmopan for an audience with the Prime Minister.
While the cooperative members tried to have an audience with the Prime Minister in Belmopan, they only met with the Minister of Transport. The meeting with the pm is now set for Wednesday.
