One of the most common complaints - among many - about Belize's public transportation system is the prevalence of standees. This happens because drivers load the aisles of buses with as many commuters as possible - despite the discomfort and safety concerns. But the National Bus Company is cracking down on this with the use of telematics technology. Cameras have now been installed in the electric buses so that the company can monitor what's happening while the buses are on the road. Courtney Menzies got to see how it works today. Here is that story.
The National Bus Company has added two new electric buses to its fleet, but apart from the new additions, these buses - and some of the others already on the road - are now equipped with cameras.
The cameras have two main objectives: to ensure there are no standees and to monitor and track the location of the buses. Minister Dr Louis Zabaneh told us more.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"We'll be able to monitor the bus from a control room and know where it is on the highway system across the country and be able to tell things like the speed of the bus, also to see if there are any standees on the bus, what's happening inside the bus, monitor the performance of the driver and the conductor. That is a very important innovation for us because it helps us with managing the operations of the company and also with providing better service to our commuters and our customers."
Anna Marie Loague, Chairperson, NBC Board of Directors
"When we decided on implementing this initiative, it came because of the amount of complaints we were receiving. Of course there are standees as the minister had said, driving patterns, commuter safety had to be the first step so we invested in having the telematics installed so at the control center we'll be able to see driver patterns whether or not there are standees on the buses and of course it goes in tandem with our system that we have at the office where commuters can call in and say that these are the issues that we are experiencing on the road and we are able to track it based on the bus route they have."
But aside from that, these cameras also come with another futuristic feature:
Luis Verde, Special Operations, NBC
"What it does also it tracks the drivers with AI so if we notice that one of the drivers might be sleepy or distracted from the system itself we'll get an alert from the company saying this driver is unfocused of he's not putting enough attention to the road as he should and then we can either call the conductor to notify the driver to pay attention but then that also works well because as soon as he gets to a terminal we are able to change that driver for somebody that may be alert."
"As soon as that bus leaves the terminal, we get a notification that it has left either the terminal, any of the stops that we have designated within the program itself and then we get a recording so from there we can see this bus left, is there any standees? Then the administrators will contact the driver immediately to let him know he's violating and to go in the norms and regulations we have as the National Bus Company."
But these aren't the only upgrades coming; the ministry plans to bring in 18 more electric buses and add a new premium service.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"We have a new category called premium so we've had the express buses and of course the regular runs. The premium now will be for buses that are 7 years or younger meaning that we want the highest quality buses, they'll have wifi and all that. These buses are still not in that category yet but these will be for express runs and again it's just information to the public that NBC is doing what it said it would do and hopefully by August, September, we could get in most of those 20 buses we are planning to bring in."
And the minister assured the public that it's not tax dollars that are paying for the buses.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"The buses are being paid for by cash flows generated by the National Bus Company. It is not coming from the coffers of the government of Belize. That is why we gave a model, a public private partnership model because then it has to be the company, out of the value that it creates that will be able to make it grow and be able to do things it needs to do for customers."
Each of the new buses cost $72,000.
