Utilising present minibuses to finally provide actual public transportation

Dear Editor,
I write to you after years of thought, discussion and research on the issue of public transportation in Guyana. And after these years of contemplating our local dilemma, I have come to one and only one solid unchangeable conclusion – that for as long as bus operators have a chance to earn more than each other on a daily basis, we will continue to face the transportation woes with which we have been plagued for the last few decades.
It is imperative that we as a people, through our elected government representatives, decide with finality to completely eliminate financial competition among bus operators. If one bus operator is paid a fixed monthly amount of money for his transportation services, he would no longer feel inspired to break the law so rampantly as he is presently doing when he decides to partake in: speeding; overloading; making illegal stops; blasting loud music and using touts.
For as long as bus operators are earning variable amounts of money on their own based on the number of passengers they manage and break the law to carry per day, and on their own terms and conditions, we in Guyana will not be experiencing truly “public” transportation. These buses are not only privately owned by privately run. They are their own bosses and passengers have no authority to which they may turn for redress or issue resolution. Presently, bus operators are kicking out passengers for, politely or otherwise, protesting against loud music and speeding, and for breaking their own terms and conditions imposed on those passengers illegally and unilaterally.
In fact, the only term and condition presently imposed on passengers by the Government is the price for the transportation services provided by these privately run buses. And even that term and condition is not met when a bus operator decides to either bully passengers, especially younger ones, for more money, or to charge more at night, or to give a passenger half a seat for the price of one, or to place a passenger to sit in another’s lap while still charging for a seat.
In these premises, I propose, strongly, that all bus operators be paid a fixed monthly sum for their services. I propose that passengers no longer pay operators in cash. I propose that passengers present, to the bus operators, bus passes bought at accessible locations which locations would then pass the proceeds over to a central body responsible for using those proceeds to pay the fixed monthly sums to the bus operators.
The central body will also be responsible for exercising regulatory and disciplinary control over bus operators, for determining routes and hours of work for each bus, for ensuring no routes are abandoned after certain hours of the day (or on holidays or weekends or rainy days or hot days) and for receiving complaints from the public about errant bus operators, etc.
This system would need to be either introduced in phases and/or introduced on a full scale after considerable notice has been given to bus operators that they would, from a future date, no longer be allowed to work any routes unless they do so through the central body for a fixed monthly sum. They would need time to register their vehicles and have them be approved for the job. Research would need to be done to determine the best starting amount to be paid to each bus operator to cover gas, mechanical maintenance and profit etc.
Once in place, this system would reduce speeding; overloading; illegal stops; loud music and touting.
Police would also spend a lot less time stopping buses for doing illegal things on the road and can focus on bigger issues. Passengers would be able to get on a bus and know that their destination is not the next Police station.
Too many Guyanese are running from the transportation presently being provided and choosing to spend large of amounts of money they cannot afford to spend to buy old unreliable cars and pay for taxis.
It has to stop. Our people are suffering. If legislation is needed to make this a reality, then let’s get cracking.

Sincerely,
John M Fraser, LLB