Yesterday, the Belize Bus Association wrote a letter to the Ministry of Transport as well as the UNDP and UN asking to be a part of the EV bus pilot project. The letter says that they support the modernization of the bus industry however they feel they've been left out. That's because the contract for the pilot project was awarded to "Westline," which now falls inside the National Bus Company. They believe that the project should be expanded and that they should be put on the rotation of companies to test the electric buses. We spoke with the president today via Zoom.
Phillip Jones - President, BBA
"From the inception of the program from UNDP, the BBA has always been interested and we have written letters on several occasions to the UNDP and the UN and to the Ministry of Transport expressing concern that we want to participate, we want to be a part of the pilot project because basically majority of the members don't want to be left behind and if this is what the UNDP in terms of the grant was issuing to bus operators. We were left out in the first phase and we're doing everything possible not to be left out hence the reason we have sent this letter again to the UNDP and the UN and also the Minister of Transport."
"We have majority of the market in terms of transportation, we have over 50 members with the highway and the villages. At the moment we have over 200 buses we are utilizing with our members and we also have two operators and we also have school buses, even busitos and taxis want to join the BBA and we feel that to have a comprehensive analysis, you need to have all parties involved for this pilot project to be successful and that way you can reach a broader audience to see the technology that will be provided and at the same time we can have operators that are interested in the project that could have real firsthand experience and could make better decisions based on that experience by utilizing the 5 buses that UNDP has gifted to the Department of Transport."
"I believe it will be extremely helpful hence the reason we wrote this letter because it's unproven technology and we find this is a perfect opportunity to garner the hands on experience so we can be better equipped, more knowledgeable and then we can see the feedback from the commuters that are not a part of in the district that these EV buses are presently operating."
