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Several aggrieved members of Government’s Transport Augmentation Programme (TAP) parked their buses today in protest to make a fresh appeal to Government to abolish or significantly reduce the existing 12.5 per cent participation fee that is deducted from their gross earnings.
The operators complained that their gross earnings are hard-hit when the tax is applied especially as they continue to operate in a struggling economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a significant rise in diesel prices
Many of the operators who parked their vehicles in an open area on the Mighty Grynner Highway this morning, said that at the end of the month they are struggling to buy food because their gross earnings, sometimes under $2 000, must finance vehicle insurance and maintenance, pay drivers, among other commitments.
They also noted that diesel prices have been hurting their already stretched pockets.
Chairman of the TAP Committee, Kristian Yearwood, said TAP’s efforts to have a meeting with Minister of Transport and Works Ian Gooding-Edghill to share their grievances have been unsuccessful. He said the committee has documented correspondence dating from January, that it has been sending the Barbados Transport Board seeking a meeting to discuss the grievances and a way forward.
According to him, many members feel trapped and as though they are a football, and they just want authorities to listen to their plight and take responsibility for the programme.
Yearwood argued that the operators who played a tremendous role in helping to ease the transportation woes taking place in Barbados between 2018-2019 should be treated better. He recalled that at that time TAP vehicles were the only ones going to terminals, stretching operators whom he said bent over backwards for the Barbados Transport Board, before the electric buses arrived on the island.
“We are asked to pay a premium fee to be part of the programme. But from what we can see, there is no value in it. Right now we are paying this premium fee to be paid late by the Transport Board.
“We don’t have access to all the routes and as a majority player in the Transport Board, because right now TAP represents the majority of their bus fleet, we cannot even get a decent meeting to discuss the concerns of the membership,” Yearwood noted.
Commitee vice-chairman Rodney Bellamy said the operators are fully aware that the Transport Board cannot simply make adjustments to the participation fee and that the minister must intervene in the matter.
He said operators are tired of being kicked around like a football as they keep getting pushed around when seeking answers on matters that need to be urgently addressed.
“This year we have seen that unlike last year when the 12.5 was eased during the first lockdown due to COVID, we found that this year it has been unbearable, Bellamy said. “A lot of us are out of business, vans are parked, broken down and all of us are struggling to keep the vehicles working at this point in time.
“If you do the figures on paper, you can see that the 12.5 per cent eats into the money that is required to pay insurances, road taxes and so on. And some of us are now starting for the first time on the permits and we are thankful for the part payment plan, but at the same time, we are making losses,” he added.
Operator Neville Griffith explained that he has been paying 32 per cent more for the past ten weeks. He maintains that although the 12.5 per cent may sound like a small amount, it is an eighth of his gross earnings.
“In December they decide they will take back out the 12.5 per cent. At 100 passengers a day, that is BDS$350. The majority of us got to put in at least BDS$300 in diesel a day because a trip is $60. So if I put in five trips per day, I still can’t get 100 paying passengers. So I ain’t carrying home anything,” Griffith explained.
Meanwhile, the Transport Board’s Chief Operations Officer (COO) Lynda Holder, in a statement, indicated that while TAP members are saying that the 12.5 operational fee is burdensome, it must be noted that each member of the programme signed a contract agreeing to the fee when they joined. She said, notwithstanding that, a six-month waiver on the fee was given during the height of the pandemic last year.
Holder said: “However, the members of the TAP are deployed under the Transport Board and our records indicate that everyone including the Transport Board suffered from a major decline during the months of the pandemic last year.
“We are slowly seeing an increase in ridership as the island re-opens and the correlating figures in revenue. Comparative data shows that if you compare the revenue collected during May 2020 and May 2021, a 43.24 per cent increase can be seen in revenue”.
Holder added that operators in the programme use the facilities operated and managed by the Transport Board and are supplied with GPS systems also paid for by the board, the punch, tickets, and waybills are also supplied by the board. She said the operational fee is used to cover some of these costs.
The COO also indicated that the spokesperson’ claim that they have been trying unsuccessfully to meet with the administrators of the programme since January 2021, is erroneous, as the last time members withdrew their service was January 2, 2021 and the members met with the Ministry of Transport and the Chairman of the Transport Board among other officials five days later via Zoom.
Holder said since that event, management of the Board has been hosting monthly meetings with the TAP operators on the last Sunday of every month.
She also stressed that while the operators also claimed that they were taking action also due to a lack of reimbursements, it should be noted that the TAP operators collect funds on-board the buses with the only reimbursements being in the area of concessionary travel for pensioners, students, police officers and Transport Board employees.
Holder said: “It was agreed that reimbursements would be done on the 15th of the month following. Payment was therefore due on 15th June 2021 for the month of May. It is accurate to say that this payment was delayed by ten days due to a lack of funds. However, operators were contacted and started to collect their funds since last Friday, June 25 2021. Therefore, to use this as an excuse to withdraw their services today was unreasonable and puzzling.”
The COO also noted that while TAP operators expressed disappointment that they were not invited to attend Sunday’s meeting to discuss the issue of the Barbados Mass Transit while other members of the transportation sector were present, they had been informed by the Director of the Transport Authority that the meeting would be held in sections, with last night’s being the first of the series.
She said the board has been advised that 110 permit holders attended the meeting yesterday to receive an update from the Transport Authority on the proposed Mass Transit Authority. (anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)
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