A year ago the ministry of transport made adjustments to its requirements for a road service permit application, in an attempt to improve the quality of buses on the road.
Their instructions were clear, operators would have to upgrade 50% of their fleet, particularly their buses older than 15 years or would not be granted a permit to operate.And surely enough after December 31st 2022, a number of operators, long standing names like Serrano's and Ritchies, vanished from the road, after years of service.
And now almost a year later, on October 6th 2023 that circular resurfaced again, notifying all bus operators that the deadline to upgrade their buses in accordance with the ministry's standards, has been set for December 31st. But can these operators scrape up the funds to bring in new buses in under two months?
Today in Belmopan, BBA President, Thomas Shaw told us that he requested a meeting with the minister to discuss the associations concerns, one of them being a potential increase in bus fares.
Thomas Andy Shaw, President, BBA
"What's going on here today is that I think you are aware of the press release that went out so yesterday we had an executive meeting along with the members as you can see we have supporters from the Belize bus company which is west line. And what came out from that meeting was that they have actually moved the goal post because what they are asking for is quite impossible. And they have to determine what they want? They want an electric bus or they want a diesel bus? Because they are telling the operators now that some of them haven't even paid of for the busses that they have now at present. But you are telling them that they have to park come December? And have newer busses? Now this all started when the pandemic we got a subsidy and that allowed the operators to keep afloat. Since then social security went up, there was an increase in social security, since then when we got that subsidy fuel was just $11 a gallon and we were fighting for it, now fuel is $13.35 per gallon a tire that you would pay $400 for is $800 now. You buy a gallon of synthetic oil it's a little over $100 if you buy the inferior oil which is the Win oil or the pure guard you can get it for 13 or 14 dollars so what we are looking at right now it's not feasible in other words for what they are asking for so that's what came out of our meeting yesterday. So what we are telling the minister what we want to tell the riding public, which we do sympathize with them is if this is what the department wants then the bus fares will have to go up by 75% in order for it to. It does because it's easy to sit behind a desk and to say or make policies and do policies and put thing out there but in reality on the ground if you go out there it's something different. They have got to get out here and see what it entails and on numerous occasions operators have put this together to show them what it costs for fuel what it costs for your office, what it costs for social security what it costs for oil what it costs for fuel and nobody goes into business to lose money you go in to make a profit."
There are many logistics to consider when purchasing a new bus, or simply keeping up with the maintenance for a fleet of 3 or 4. And with the cost of living on the rise, Shaw says that his members have expressed to him that their profits are decreasing with each expense.
Thomas Andy Shaw, President, BBA
"In order for this to work there has to be a collaborative effort between GOB and the operators. There's no way the operators can afford to be taking a loss. I see all the Chiney stores everybody else increasing their fares except the bus owners."
"To be honest with you from since that dis cussion to now most operators have actually upgraded and most operators have upgraded and that's a fact. But in reality, in reality all our operators cannot afford to go out there and buy a new bus with what the commuters are presently paying because everything is up, everything went up except the fares for the bus operators."
"What we intended to achieve is it let cool heads prevail and let the minister sit down with us cause I know he is a business man and he is about business because he has a family, and having a family is much easier than dealing with buses okay."
"But as I said I'm not going to let you guys turn me into a monster. I'm going to do things the right way. So i called the minister and i arranged this meeting for today and i'm going to let him know exactly what came out of yesterday's meeting."
And though nothing has been finalized as yet Shaw remains hopeful that the Minister along with his policy makers will be open to negotiations, before they decide to keep moving the goal post.
