The Belize Bus Owners Cooperative is in the news again tonight and the complaint this time is that they are being forced off the road by National Transport. About a dozen drivers came to our studios this afternoon claiming that the former chairman of their cooperative signed over the road service permits to National Transport. They say they've been to the Transport and Cooperatives Departments and no one would listen so they came to us. Of course there are two sides to a story and we'll begin with the drivers. Fred Ayala spoke on their behalf.
Fred Ayala, Bus Owners Cooperative
"They are running their buses on our schedule so we would for them to stop running on our permits. We would also like the Cooperative Department to help us get our runs together and be a bus cooperative."
Keith Swift,
Did he have permission to sign over these permits?
Fred Ayala,
"Mr. Meyers didn't have permission to pass over any permits. The permits are first of all non-transferable and not for sale."
Keith Swift,
Dud he sell them?
Fred Ayala,
"He passed them over. He passed them over to Novelo's"
Keith Swift,
Where are you buses right now?
Fred Ayala,
"We have buses at Mosul Street. We have thirteen operational buses ready to run but it seems that National Transport doesn't want us to be on the road."
Keith Swift,
What are you guys going to do?
Fred Ayala,
"Well that's why we are here. We want the country of Belize to know that we are poor people and we would like for us, the Belize bus owners members to stand up and let's continue doing our jobs, this is our jobs. We bought the permits out of our own money and we want to continue."
Spokesman for the Ministry of Transport Glenn Tillet told us this evening that no one has taken away the Cooperative's permit. He says the Department of Transport recognizes the Chairman and board of the cooperative that's on file with the Department of Cooperatives and that Chairman is Wayne Meyers. Tillet says it is internal bickering among factions within the cooperative which they have to sort out and while they do that, buses need to continue moving and that's priority number one for the Transport Department.
Meanwhile a National Transport Representative told us this evening that the company leased buses to the cooperative but they weren't paying. National concedes that they are running bus to fill the gaps left by the Bus Owners Cooperative. The Bus Owners Cooperative reportedly owes its creditors close to $250,000 thousand dollars.
For historical perspective, the Bus Owners Cooperative is a re-incarnation of the Bus Drivers Cooperative which went belly up when Atlantic Bank seized their buses because, again, they weren't paying the lease.
