Submitted by Inkwell
Professor Avinash D. Persaud referred to privately owned buses as 'crappy little buses' while participating on a Talk Show on the Weekend
Professor Avinash Persaud said on Brass Tacks Sunday, with more than a little pique in his voice that Government had to subsidize the Transport Board while privately owned “crappy little buses” were making a profit. Prof Persaud is misinformed, at least with regard to the extent of their profitability. Is the crazy way the majority of PSV operators behave on the roads of Barbados indicative of an industry that is making money? To the initiated or the discerning observer, if looks more like a struggle to survive. They:
- Overload their vehicles to maximize income
- Pick up and put down passengers any and everywhere.
- Break the speed limit
- Run red lights
- Go off route to avoid traffic buildups
- Play loud music to attract customers
- Do not complete their route if it is not to their financial advantage
- Disregard common driver courtesy on the road
- Drive in a way sometimes dangerous to other road users.
- They are not psychopaths, they are fighting for survival.
In the last three years to 2009, Government subsidized the Transport Board some $240million, or $80million per year. And that was before the introduction of free travel for school children. No figures have been released, but this accommodation would most surely have increased that subsidy substantially. An additional amount of $5m to $10m annually would be reasonable to assume.
Barbados is struggling with its fiscal deficit and transfers to statutory bodies like the Transport Board have been identified as a significant part of the mounting deficit. Calls are being made to increase the efficiency of the Board’s operations. Such an improvement must be a part of the solution, but everyone is pussyfooting around the subject and not saying the one thing that needs to be said. The Government MUST reduce or eliminate this and other subsidies in order to reduce the deficit. BUS FARES MUST BE INCREASED. If the government does not have the guts to do it, the IMF will. The very fact of the reduction or removal of the subsidy will be a catalyst for an improvement of efficiency.
Bus fares have been fixed at $1.50 since 1991 but the cost of buses, parts, maintenance, wages, NIS overheads and diesel has risen steadily over that nineteen year period. How can anyone in his right mind imagine that PSV’s are still making money. I challenge anyone to name one other service for which the charge has remained static for the last nineteen years. Any entity operating at fixed 1991 income levels while having to operate on 2010 expense levels must have a rich godfather somewhere. The Transport Board has the Government. The owners of those “crappy little buses” have no godfather. Most are on the brink of financial ruin and operate on a day to day basis, scrambling for every $1.50 they can get in order to survive. The units deserve the name “crappy little buses” because owners have not been able to earn enough to replace them with new units. Every one of those buses is in excess of fifteen years old, several twenty, but you can be sure that MTW and the Police hold them to high standards of road worthiness, at considerable cost. Why do we have fifteen and twenty year old “crappy little buses” on the road if they could have been replaced through accumulated profit, with the attendant saving on maintenance cost. Depreciation, which is designed to allow owners to accumulate a reserve from profits to allow for replacement of the vehicle, is virtually non-existent and is merely a book entry.
The Government is forcing owners of PSV’s to subsidize public transportation out of their own pockets and is using its power to discriminate against the sector with exorbitant taxes and unfair competition because it does not want to accept the reality of the situation and do the politically unpalatable but fiscally necessary thing… pass on some of the cost of providing public transport to those using the service. As far as the behavior of the operators goes, when they do not have to fight tooth and nail and compete amongst themselves and with the Transport Board under adverse conditions for each passenger just to survive, are not subjected to blatant official discrimination and can earn a decent wage while working reasonable hours, then we can expect them to feel more a part of society and conform to its rules, rather than as pariahs and behave as such.
The Government does not want to take the bull by the horns because of perceived political fallout, but circumstances seem to be on the verge of forcing it to do so. Continued escalation of the deficit, to which subsidies to parastatal organizations contribute substantially, carries the real risk of a second downgrading by the international rating agencies and this time it would be to junk status, making it more costly, or impossible, to borrow on the international market. Our next recourse would be to the IMF. All economic observers opine that the current level of deficit is unsustainable and Government must take action, even if unpalatable, to avoid further, more draconian measures in the future.
An increase in bus fares will go some way toward not only redressing the hardship long imposed on the private transport sector and provide an incentive for them to clean up their act, but toward improving Government’s fiscal position. It will also show the rating agencies that Government is in fact doing something about the accelerating debt train and may positively influence their next rating.
The transportation sector BU scores the Arthur administration an F. He flew the kite on bus fares and pullback when he got an unfavourable public reaction, Wood was transport minister at the time who ended with the egg on his face. There is also the sub-culture which has resulted from his administration turning the other check. It was a problem he inherited to be fair but he of all the Prime Ministers in the last 25 years had the political capital to make the changes required. He did not.
Just putting this out there…
If I find myself in Oistins (for example), and I want to get to Wildey (or Warrens)…
How do I do that using “public transport” without passing through Bridge Town?
Yes, we’re a small country.
But is “hub and spoke” the only and optimal solution?
(For those that don’t know, Wildey is only a little north-west of Oistins — far less distance than travelling through Bridge Town to reach the destination. If there were transfer options between the major routes, it would go a long way to lessening the time and energy expenditures.)
David
“.. turning the other check.”
Dis sounds like an interesting play on the English… I like the way that it sound no ..? But you mus’ help me with the English…
Christopher Halsall
You are really not following what is going on at the bus level.
There is a bus which goes from Oistin along the ABC highway through Wildey, on to Warrens and into Speightstown along Highway 2A. It leaves on the hour.
@Fair Play: “You are really not following what is going on at the bus level.
Perhaps not.
Can you please tell us all where this bus route is publicly documented?
Or, further, where any Bajan bus routes are officially documented?
The Transport Board had an official launch with Minister Boyce, the media and some invited guests. I saw it on television.
Now the part about official documentation of bus routes, I cannot help.
But if you know Barbados, you will have to go into the bus stand to read them I suppose.
Public transporation the world over is subsidised by government and is a loss-making entity. The only profitable public transporation in the world I heard of is the Indian Railway -which by the way- is the single largest employer in the world ( it employs over 1.5 million people). However, the government needs to reduce the waste in this system by casting off the excess human resource and increase the user fees. The MTA in New york is a quasi-governmental organisation with daily ridership in excess of 3million the largest in the USA. Over the past two years it has increased fees at least three times, acccompany by reduces services and job re-trenchment. These type of decisions are not politically popular, but if that’s what it takes to save the system then so be it. Barbados need to stop practicising “greek economics” and get a grip of reality. In times of economic hardship government subsidies and transfer payments should not been seen as a birth- right, entitlement or sacred cow but rather should be dealt with in an economic pragmatic way.
If we continue to make decision on political populism rather than economic pragmatism them soon or later Barbados will be the next “Greek tragedy” of the caribbean.
The Transport Board has been used as the play ground by government ministers on both sides for their benefit. How can Barbadians forget Rommel who awarded the contract to an insurance company who did not have the best bid and never felt pushed to explain why to the PEOPLE.
What about awarding the PSVs license to operate the best/most profitable routes?
What is the Transport Authority doing?
How can the transportation system in Barbados become efficient of the private and public is not integrated?
And to add to the already chaos and indiscipline we have among PSV’s, some state owned included, the ZM’s or Maxi Taxis, which are beginning to feel the pinch of tourist fall off, are now plying the routes serviced by the ZR’s, Minibuses and Transport Board.Before we could address on problem we now have a shiny new spanner in the works. And by all accounts the ZM’s seems to have a legitimate right to stop and pick up passengers, like any ordinary taxi cab , if requested to do so by any potential passenger , on a share-a-cab basis.
The transport system in this island is one vicious, dog-eat-dog affair. The Minibuses came along,and according to the owners political affiliation, they were allowed to bulldozed the state owned Transport Buses off these lucrative routes, the Pine being one. Route 13 to Silver Sands and St Christopher, caused the Transport Board to were retire hurt,after a bariffle of permits were issued to ZR vans to operate on the route. Now the ZM’s are on the scene to knock the ZR’s and Minibuses off the scene.
Transport Board’s Schedules and timetables can be access online.
http://www.transportboard.com/news_speightstownoistinsabc.php
What I cannot understand even after so many years, is the fact that the Transport Board was formed to give commuters a better service, and yes, in those early days the service was on par with that in any big city. 15 Minute service to Silver Sands, Grazettes, Bush Hall, Deacons Road and surrounding areas. And regular 30minute or hourly service to other ‘remote’ areas. A well maintained fleet, even if some units were aged, with relatively few breakdowns to affect the available of units servicing the many routes. During those days in the mid ’60′s a profit was realised ,first and only , under the management of Capt. Colin Hill. The buses and/or routes were subsequently taken away from the private concessionaires,again, under the guise of providing the travelling public with a better service. Today the service is no better than that which the private concessionaires had provided,and the Transport Board has become an albatross around the taxpayers neck. Those private concessioaires, although the fares were low, ended up rich men and women.
The concessionaires had no fancy degrees in business or transportation, but were knowledgeable and dedicated, the same could be said of the early management of the Transport Board.
I think the author of the main story is too concerned to preserve the profitability of routes than to listen to what Persaud is really saying. If there are insufficient profits to operate at the current subsidy level or the current service level then people will not bid for the routes.
Persaud mentioned something interesting in a speech I heard some time ago which is a sort of reverse auction, where a subsidy is given (per passenger) and the bidders, bid up the service they will commit for that level of subsidy. This is a novel idea and designed to deal with the issue of service being brought down to the lowest common denominator as people try and squeeze profits out of every last penny and will hopefully cap the subsidy at current levels.
The main point is, the auction process will force the same degree of efficiency in the public sector as the private sector. The question is to what end do we push that efficiency, to lower fares or better service. The process of auctions may also allow us to create a new class of small local social entrepreneurs and driver-based co-operatives.
(This is anonymous trying out a name)
Dear Inkwell,
I enjoy many of your posts.
If the Transport Board raises its fares, the private sector will follow and there will be a transfer from the public to the operators. It will support profitability in the private sector and accommodate and prolong inefficiency in the public sector.
If there is an auction of routes in which the public and private sector can compete, there is a transfer from inefficient to more efficient operators. If this efficiency is tilted, in the design of the auction, towards greater service (more frequency, more information technology, more comfortable buses, better drivers) it will be to the benefit of consumers.
So, lets have a Persaud-styled auction of caped subsidies for routes, where bidders bid on improving service levels for a given subsidy and where driver-owned co-operatives are invited to bid.
BLP –good party
DLP -BAD PARTY-blighted even
Return Barbados to growth
Vote BLP
Can you guys explain this auction business in a little more detail?
Bus fare in Toronto, Canada. $5.80 bds one way.Canada is a G7 country.
Barbados bus fare $1.50 bds. mmmmmm
@Bosun
Have you seen that Transport Board website!? Well in terms of the bus schedule, there is little route information provided. The schedules are hopelessly incomplete. If I want to go from Oistins to Holetown what time is the last bus on Saturday? How about if I wanted to go Warrens?
I guess we want to force tourist to use taxis or rental cars to get around, but what if I were a UWI student from another nation….how do I figure out how to get where I want to go?
Last time I checked it was 2010 and I am sure all these routes are documented somewhere. Why can’t they give a few vacation jobs to some young Comp Sci students from BCC or UWI to update the website? Give them a few cents a month and I am sure it would be of benefit to the nation.
Dear David,
First, let me say I agree with you about the grade “F” for transport. I expect the apologists to say that there was expenditure on new buses and then there was the ABC Highway. After all the delays and expenses, and the whole issue of flyovers, I do find it has improved my journey times out of rush hour. Yesterday, at midday, I got from Black Rock to Worthing in 15 minutes and I cant recall managing that before. But these are small mercies and as you say, the opportunity for radical change was missed. Arguably we could survive then without radical change, we cannot survive today without it.
There are many different types of auction and for auction you can read tender. The main point is that you take a service that the public wants to fund, or at least subsidise, but you involve the private sector in the delivery of that service to the public on the basis that the public sector is not very efficient at doing things or it is a scope for too many jobs for the boys and backhanders: publicly funded but privately delivered.
So we could take a route, say Chris’s Oistins to Wildey. The main type of tender would be to have a set of minimum standards: here are some crude ones for example: age of buses, average waiting time, safety record and you ask firms to bid for getting that route, allowing the bids to fall below zero which is in effect a subsidy. One firm may say that it will meet the standards at $1 per passenger subsidy, another could say, they could do it at 75cents. The winner’s 3 year license for running the route could be revoked if there are serious or a number of minor traffic offenses or poor customer reports. This type of tender generates innovation in reducing the cost of delivering the service or increasing side revenues. Maybe firms start innovating by offering things to sell on the bus, or they offer premium customers wifi. The problem with this type of tender is that if focuses the energy of the firms on cutting corners.
Another type of auction that Professor Persaud has mentioned is on service quality not price. So the subsidy is fixed to achieve some savings for the public purse at say 0.75 cents per passenger for a route and you ask the firms to bid on the basis of service quality. One firm may say that average waiting times will be no more than 15 minutes and there will be zero traffic offenses for any driver. Another may say 15 minutes plus new buses, another may say all buses have wifi for passengers and are electronically tagged so at every bus stop you can see where the next bus is and an estimate of when it will arrive. If firms renege on their service agreement, their license is revoked. Customer panels review the license agreement. Persaud has added that certain bidders could be given incentives to bid in order to use the tenders as a way of promoting small black entrepreneurship. Driver co-operatives below a certain size could be given access to Government borrowing rates and guarantees for leasing new buses. The existing private bus owners will view this as unfair, but they have lost the confidence of the public and need to earn that back before they complain too loudly.
Professor Persaud said you should roll these out slowly – one route at a time – so that we can analyse how each went and where we can improve the next rather than jumping into one method and committing ourselves to one approach. Perhaps we start with a combination of one profitable and one unprofitable route first so the net effect would be to reduce the deficit at the Transport Board on what is left as well as reducing the subsidy on what has been auctioned. I am glad Persaud has kicked the debate into what should be done as opposed to all this back and forth party politics and blame game, I am surprised he has any energy left after Four Seasons.
I am sorry about the length of this post. Forgive me.
@Lewis
Thanks for distilling this matter in layman terms for the BU family.
Must say on the face is seems doable.
However with most things managed by government one has to question if a project such as you have described can be managed efficiently by government or parastatal agency.
David,
The very sad truth is that you are right.
My experience of three things I am involved in at the moment is that the current administration, at least, could not execute this and could not even get to the point of execution. It would get lost in committees, whose meeting times will be few and far between and frequently canceled at the last minute by the Minister, if he were to turn up.
There is also no patronage in this idea which is why no one in government or the Transport Board will be keen, quite apart from the technical expertise required. Unless Persaud could be persuaded, our best bet would be to pay up expensively for a foreign consultant with no experience of Barbados to tell us what we could probably figure out for ourselves and then to do what we could probably do for ourselves if we remembered how Government was supposed to function. This is as dispiriting as the current downpour.
David,
The above proposals are convoluted complications which will be beyond any government agency to institute and manage.
The solution is not rocket science. Increased bus fares (which no one can reasonable argue are unwarranted) will reduce/remove the government subsidy and give it further income so that it can expand its services.
For the private sector, a return to reasonable profitability will see an improvement in the quality of its service and enable it to change the “crappy little buses” and ZR vans to something more suited to public transportation.
New routes can be created and assigned, either to the TB or PSV sector by the Transport Authority as demographics dictate. There is little wrong with the current system that proper pricing and improved management and policing cannot correct.
Dear Inkwell.
I understand your position.
However, higher prices doesn’t solve the cause of the inefficiency, in a few years time, the Transport Board will be losing just as much money. The argument for increasing prices is the same argument the sugar industry used. Higher prices, they said, would allow them to invest. In the end all it did was to allow them to be more and more inefficient so that when they were exposed to those not receiving subsidies, or in our case when the money runs out, they are crushed.
If higher prices are what is required to maintain the service quality that will be the result of the auctions. Given the service levels, the auction result will be a bigger subsidy or higher prices. The main reason why most players argue against the auctions – something that many countries have including most towns in the UK – is that it will require both the public and private sector to be efficient for the benefit of consumers.
And lets talk about consumers. Higher water rates, higher electricity bills, potentially higher VAT, higher taxes and levies and charges…..where does all of that come from? Out of the pockets of people and in this case, poorer people on average who do not have the choice of a private motor car. Higher fees and fares means less spending in the rest of the economy, which means less revenues, which means less jobs, which means less incomes which means less spending. It is a spiral that we need to get out of, not get into at a faster pace.
I think were this blog could make a difference is to say that papering over our cracks by raising taxes and raising fees does not solve our structural problem, indeed, it makes the structural problem of uncompetitiveness, worse.
@Inkwell
All understand the financial and other pressures attracted to the PSV sector. However there is merit in Lewis’ suggestion that we need to strategize how we can improve quality levels. Bear in mind service issues remain a concern at a societal level.
Minister Boyce has promised a lot but has delivered very little on this issue of improving transportation.
THERE IS BUS RUNNING FROM OISTINS TO SPEIGHTSTOWN THROUGH WARRENS AND WILDEY
@Lewis,
In the various auction scenarios, are bus fares set by the government or does the operator propose a fare?
Also, if I understand correctly, you said that these schemes would force the public sector to be as efficient as the public sector in delivering the service. But how would the Transport Board participate? Would they be bidding on routes as well? If so, what happens if they win certain routes but then have actual expenses that exceed their projections (or lower revenues) – wouldn’t the government still have to finance their deficit?
I agree that the auction scheme is probably too complex to be run within the public sector. However isn’t there supposed to be a Transport Authority to deal with service standards in the sector? If the Transport Authority were suitably staffed (outside the usual public sector constraints) it should be able to run the scheme efficiently and effectively.
One of our big problems in Barbados is this ability that we all have to be able to identify solutions to matters that do not fall under our responsibility. Interestingly, for those matters that are ours to resolve, we can be relied on for a range of excellent excuses for inaction.
Except (notably) for the formerly Anonymous Lewis, most of us are far too willing to rush to solutions to this $1.5 situation.
What analysis says that the problem is the transport board? There is NO QUESTION that the board has many problems. the number of buses awaiting repair, the attitude of staff, the unreliability of schedules and the obvious (and endemic) poor management certainly needs to be addressed.
…but in terms of the subsidy by government to the TB, this may well be some of the best money spent in Barbados.
Now if we ask about the UWI, then Bush Tea would have a different opinion. When the bushman can hear all Bajans – including bloggers on BU, hanging on to every word spoken by this ‘come lately’ Avonish Persaud, the bushman is forced to wonder what became of the hundreds of graduates of Cave Hill – who we paid for to learn to become experts; who live here; and whose futures are tied to Barbados….
Apart from Mascoll, (who should have remained in the Central Bank as he in NOT a leader), one would think that the money invested in UWI to train these people was completely wasted.
When it wasn’t Persaud, it was one ‘Living in Barbados’ Jones who was the sought after guru in economics.
What gurus what??!!
Man charity begins at HOME.
When these people get their own kith and kin sorted out, the bushman will be inclined to listen to them – not before.
Similarly, how can we be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on UWI to produce hundreds of clearly useless graduates? CUT THAT!!
It is also obvious that there is lots and lots of gravy hidden in that $1.5 B. So far, we have seen only detailed the items which at first glance seem palatable – What about all those organizations with acronyms that mean little – but which pay huge salaries to political hacks who do nothing?
BTTI
BADMC
UDC
RDC
……and while we are at it, maybe Dr Reid can tell us what his organization BAMCI ACTUALLY does – apart from ‘creating frameworks’
What we need is a complete breakdown that makes sense, and which allows us to make rational decisions – how can you have such a large ‘unknown’ category listed? … this is always a sign of something to hide….
A boss of a utility company once appealed to his employees, ‘Instead of going to the PUB (as it were then) for a dollar increase in rates, lets try and save that dollar internally.And it worked for years. Perhaps the Transport Board can lower its operating costs, and its heavy dependence on the taxpayers, if it adopts a similar strategy. Buses,like most government owned vehicles, appear to have an operating life of 5 years maximum. The selection of the right bus could extend the life of a bus to some 15 to 20 years, as we have seen overseas, and right here in Barbados back in the ;’60′s and ’70′s where some models lasted in excess of 25 years. The other bug bear is the cost of maintenance. I am sure that when the Transport Board had its own maintenance staff, its maintenance cost was nowhere as high as it is now that maintenance is carried out by the bee-duble-hugh.
Whenever you meet Transport Board buses , on low support/revenue routes like Fordes Road, its a massive bus capable of carrying well over 60/70 passengers, but often times there are only 2/3 non fare paying senior citizens aboard. Why can’t the Board provide smaller buses like the Heino on such routes,especially in these days when fuel needs to be conserved.
@Bosun: “Transport Board’s Schedules and timetables can be access online. [URL Provided]
Thank you for that.
But let’s say I’m near “Worthing Beach” (on the South Coast), and I want to get to “Sheraton Mall” using public transport. (It’s almost directly north. Well, north by north-north east, actually….)
How would I do that without passing through Bridgetown using public transport?
I guess the point I am trying to make is it seems the current public transport systems here in Bim don’t leverage all the major routes available to those who can afford their own vehicles.
As in, except for a very few exceptions, we’re still “hub and spoke”, with Bridgetown (already overloaded with traffic) being the hub….
@ CH, lets face it ,the same pertains to any part of the world.It is impractical for any public transport to link every major road in its network. What the Transport Board has sought to do,and for a long time now is to provide a service linking all of, or most of the industrial areas.
And we know that Bajans like a door-to-door service.
And there is another transport entity in Barbados which is following closely in the footsteps of the Transport Board. It is mandated to transport sick “passengers,” known as the Barbados Ambulance Service, it was down to just one available ambulance ,to service the entire island earlier this week. A Ministry of Health official is quoted as saying that they had to depend on the BDF and private ambulance services for coverage. I do hope that this is not the same Official who pompously stated a few weeks ago that, “private ambulances are not recognised as emergency vehicles,” QEH management does not like the eating of unwholesome snacks,nor CROW.
But what could be so difficult in maintaining a small fleet of general service vehicle ambulances? And I speak from experience, having managed the maintenance of a fleet of Special-to-role ambulances ,plus other vehicles numbering some 50, with less manpower than that which now obtains at the Ambulance Service,and under some conditions that were less than ideal.
@Bosun: “…lets face it ,the same pertains to any part of the world.
Not the parts of the world I am familiar with…
@Bosun: “It is impractical for any public transport to link every major road in its network.
Every major road? Perhaps not. But certainly some.
And let’s be honest here — Bim is a small country. In most countries, Bim would be a very small city…
The small city I lived in before moving to Bim was larger; both demographically and geographically. And I could usually take public transport between major centres of industry without passing through the city centre….
Dear BT,
The annual public contribution to public transport in general and to UWI are in similar proportions – $125-$135m. Seems we should look for savings from both, as well as the other abbreviations you mentioned, but these are the biggies along with QEH.
Persaud’s point is that there should be more contribution to their education from those who can afford to pay, or who are paying taxes abroad. When people make a contribution they start being more discerning about what they are doing, rather than just getting a free certification. I think that makes sense, but which politician is going to grapple that sacred cow.
Who died and made Persaud king? He is not a likeable person. Makes you wonder when he speaks if he wants Barbados to collapse. Where did he come from all of a sudden. One minute he on television asserting Four Winds restarts by June , a big lie because its July and the weeds growing faster at Paradise. Now he is back again with his air of self importance telling us Four Seasons restarts in Sept. We shall see. He is supposed to be an economist my old grandmother made better predictions about price of grocereies than this guy. Persaud look please shut up and leave us hard working Barbadians to do what we’ve always done, sacrifice throuigh hard times and be thankful; during good times.
Dear Brutus,
Good questions. Sorry I am answering them late. Let me begin by saying that I am merely trying to help explain some of the ideas proposed by Professor Persaud, though, I guess I am making the effort because I am positively disposed to them.
As you know – I have followed your wise comments over the years – in an auction you need to have one thing fixed while the bidders move the other. So, you could set the service level required and ask the bidders to bid down the price of the average fare, or the combination of fare plus subsidy. This is what you would do if cost was the only consideration. This kind of auction could probably save $20m per year. One of the big cost savings would be in vehicle maintenance which the private sector or driver-owned businesses are far better than the public sector where the drivers dont care and 20% or more of the buses are off the road at any one time.
I did a google search earlier following the interest in the subject and found that Persaud has argued in a 5 or 6 (?) year old Gresham Lecture that is critical of PPP auctions for hospitals, that these types of auctions work well where the service being provided is easy to monitor and is hard to skimp, otherwise winners spend their time trying to maximize profits with the given fare by cutting corners on service. Going from A to B in a bus probably satisifies this condition while health services do not, but I am not sure.
Where there is the scope to cut corners on service and safety, Persaud proposes an unusual auction where the Government sets the fare (or subsidy plus fare) and, presumably, puts this at a level that achieves some savings for the Treasury, and then asks bidders to bid up the service level they would provide at that given level of subsidy plus fare. This rechannels the entrepreurial spirit away from cutting corners on service to coming up with new services like buses with WiFi, or where you can buy breakfast or a paper, or where buses are electronically tagged so that time and delays can be reported at the bus-stops or sent to mobile phones etc, etc.
If all the existing Transport Board routes are auctioned off then the result will be that the public service buses (those with the subsidy) will become as efficient as the private service buses. In all of these approaches a key factor is how you monitor service and remove licenses for non-performance. That is what the Transport Board would become – a Bus Regulator with, hopefully, rotating consumer representation.
We are a naturally conservative and cautious island and that is why I agree with Persaud’s other suggestion that we roll this out, slowly and one route at a time, giving us time to observe what is working and what is not.
There has been a lot of attention on Persaud’s ideas on the Transport Board and similar services like water and sanitation, but I agree with Bush Tea, that his ideas on UWI are potentially a more significant cost saver. But I would agree with Conrad that they are too explosive for your average politician. Persaud is bravely persistent – I recall he made similar noises in his address at the annual chamber of commerce luncheon or something. Which politician is going to be brave enough to be the first to espouse similar ideas?
Let me add that my guesstimates on savings are merely guesses based on the overall magnitude of the cost of the Transport Board. All I know for certain is that if it is savings that we want then we are most likely to get them through competitive auctions.
Persaud’s 2005, Gresham Lecture on auctions for privately delivered, public services:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?EventId=263&PageId=108
Dear Rastaman,
I am sure Persaud has made many failed forecasts – as a businessman I make them all the time, but I recall two of his. I think it was in the summer of 2008 when the guys at the Tourist Board said everything was hunky dory and Barbados tourists would not stay away, and he said unless the Government did something, unemployment would rise from the then 8% to over 10% and beyond. Prepare he said. A slow motion train crash, he warned.
I recall he said sometime shortly afterwards when some Government official said everything was fine with the Government finances, that the Government had better borrow early, especially from the multilateral organisations, because it will find it hard to borrow later. One credit downgrade later and the second negative watch, it is indeed harder to borrow.
At the beginning of last year there was much in the press about him having something to do with Barbados being the only Caribbean country on the “white list” and later in the year he put together the finances for a rescue of the Four Seasons with a Government guarantee, which, correct me if I am wrong, the government only signed last month.
Now he is letting Macoll and Ince fight politics on the radio while he is churning out radical solutons for either party to adopt and for the rest of us to examine.
Yes rastaman, we’ve got him! Of all the hypocritical politicians and useless commentators we’ve found the man to pull down. Ever wondered why we dont progress? I dont idolise anyone, but there are some people who `i am gratefukl that they do what they do.
Hi Conrad
I take your point about the similarities in the costs of The Transport Board and the UWI. but surely you agree that what we need to address is the cost/benefit relationship – not just the cost of operation.
Transport Board (like Waterworks) is one of those utilities that many of us take for granted. Can you even contemplate not having these services? One has to be very careful about making radical changes to such fundamental areas without very clear expectations about the new outcome.
Transport Board NEEDS to be more efficient – this can be done by transparent operations (eg not having ministers play with the insurance arrangements, not buying buses based on the level of personal benefits obtainable etc)., by professional leadership, and by politicians butting out.
Privatizing the operation through auctions or otherwise may well end up with a very profitable transport system – but where Government then has to spend even more money (to subsidize the transport costs of the poor and elderly) in payments to this new profit orientated operation ( or see significant cut backs of the movement of some citizens)
This analysis applies to entities like the QEH, Waterworks etc
However with UWI it is clear to bushie that we are WASTING resources on a LARGE scale here.
1 – After over half century of UWI, we are NOT seeing the level of leadership and developmental impact that one would expect for the kind of money we spend there.
2 – Almost every UWI graduate seem to be interested ONLY in maximizing their own personal wealth and status. THEREFORE they should finance their OWN education.
Serious!! who REALLY needs a medical facility at Cave Hill costing millions – to produce more future millionaires – prescribing legal drugs and ordering unnecessary tests?
…… Let them pay for themselves. Anyone paid for by the state should be REQUIRED to repay every cent within 10 years of graduation.
From a cost /benefit perspective therefore, Bush Tea fails the UWI badly – while the Transport Board and QEH needs some serious work – but their benefits are clearly very meaningful…
@ Lewis
….if it is savings that we want then we are most likely to get them through competitive auctions.
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Will competitive auctions produce ‘savings’? ….and at what level?
I put it to you that an ‘efficient’ transport system will attract bus fares at significantly higher levels than at present exists.
My question is, “What are the benefits to our society of having almost free travel for all citizens”?
….answer…..SIGNIFICANT!!!
~`many low paying jobs become more viable as a result of workers mobility.
~ many small (and large) businesses depend on this mobility too
~ Children go to school instead of hanging around at home due to lack of funds (and getting themselves into serious trouble)
~ Some persons who may otherwise be forced to purchase vehicles do not do so resulting in national savings.
If we privatize this operation, the country will either have to pay the economic costs of running the private operation (plus profits to the operators) or lose the benefits currently enjoyed.
It would be interesting to see an economic analysis which considers these (and similar) factors, but the bushman would let sleeping buses lie for the time being.
We should be careful not to have debates and make decisions on the basis of false premises. The premise put forward by Persaud seems to be that PSVs compete with the Transport Board and the PSVs make money while the Transport Board requires a subsidy, hence the Transport Board must be inefficient relative to the PSVs.
PSVs only operate on the high traffic profitable routes and they provide service at times of the day when there is realtively high passenger traffic, and they make modifications to their routes depending on passenger traffic. PSVs seem to violate all types of safety practices not only in terms of overloading and speeding, but also the amount of hours a driver drives continuously during a day.
The Transport Board provides a comprehensive nation wide service at a wide variety of times, and seems to observe basic safety standards. This means radically different cost structures for the two sets of operators, so I am not sure that the efficiency comparisons on the table are either fair or accurate.
There is a fair bit of experience with privatization via auction, so its certainly doable and the idea should not be shot down.
My specific queries would relate to:
If certain areas and routes are to receive adequate service levels (St, John, St. Lucy, St. Andrew, St. Joseph, Edey Village etc..) the state would have to subsidise the auction winners. What might those levels of subsidies be if dramatic declines in service level are to be avoided?
Would a subsidy be required to provide service at regular intervals during the day and night? In some other caribbean islands with no government bus service gpoing to church on sunday morning or geting a bus at 9pm can be quite challenging? Again, what might those levels of subsidies be if dramatic declines in service level are to be avoided?
Would auction winners find routes profitable at 1.50 per ride if they were required to observe safety standards in terms of passenger loads, speeding and the amount of hours a driver is allowed to drive continuously in a day?
It seems to me that the TB and PSVs provide vastly different service levels. I need more persuading that the PSVs can provide a similar level of service profitably at $1.50 per ride.
I have always wonderd about private providers paid a fee by the state for garbage collection. Some auctions there could be interesting.
The weaknesses of our transport system have been clearly articulated on this blog particulary on the revenue side. The question of what savings can be made if Transport Board in collaboration with the NPC did a pilot project on using buses running on natural gas as compared to imported diesel. I suspect that cost will probably decline by about 30% and certianly we would increase the use of a local resource and compared to imported diesel. A pricing structure can be worked out with NPC that allow both parties to enjoy a reasonable ROI.
One of my concerns with the debate in public and on the blogs is that while we have an immediate problem, the fiscal deficit, a number of medium to long term solutions are being put on the table. Any privatizations, especially by auctions where you want to empower small providers is going to be a relatively lengthy and complicated process. However, well you mean, this is Barbados and the labor issues are going to be horrendous. the payouts etc. are going to be quite costly.
The UK and others are resorting to a VAT increase because its an immediate solution to an immediate problem. the government has had some success with the medium term fiscal strategy this year with a 93 ml cut in expenduture, but with a decline in corporation tax wiping out those gains, it seems like some more immediate surgery is needed.
Dear Bush Tea,
The option being proposed is not to force the buses to charge the private economic cost of their operation. The option is to auction a subsidy. It is public funding or subsidies but private delivery.
I hesitate to repeat the explanation earlier as it took up a lot of room, but put it this way. Let us say that we want bus fares to remain at $1.50 for the wider economic benefits that you mention, then we can have an auction where we say, here are the service levels you must provide in terms of scheduling, safety etc and you must charge no more than $1.50, let see who can do that at the lowest possible subsidy.
What we would be getting is the most efficient way of delivering low bus fares. Why would a co-operative of bus drivers be able to provide a public service cheaper than the public company? Every bus out of service would be profit lost and so they would be incentivised to ensure that there was proper maintenance and drivers looked after the vehicles etc. There would be no incentive for over-employing friends and family. There are plenty of examples in Barbados and elsewhere where when you lease the trucks and vans to the drivers and they lose when they are out of service, the drivers are more punctual, they look after the vehicles far better, and there is less down-time. We would also be giving these drivers, or in other examples garbage truck drivers, pipe maintenance teams, etc, etc, opportunities to build capital, helping to widen the very narrow ownership of capital on the island.
I am not sure I can explain it better than that but I will reflect on it.
@Lewis,
Thanks – I read Persaud’s 2005 lecture at the link you provided.
One of the practical problems with the auction proposal is that we may not attract enough bidders to reap the benefits of competition. To run a single route, I imagine that a number of buses will be needed even for the shorter routes. An operator who is able to bid on multiple routes will therefore need significant capital to buy the buses although I guess they can be bought or leased with a government guarantee, as would be the case in a PPP project. Your co-operative of bus drivers may be wishful thinking but I would be happy to be proven wrong, and we should think of what would be needed to facilitate this.
Oilman’s contribution above brings to mind another complication – the fluctuating price of fuel would present a real problem for bidders. There would have to be a mechanism to directly pass through all or some fuel costs to the government (or to the passengers).
As we all seem to have agreed though, this is just an interesting intellectual exercise since dismantling the Transport Board is probably not politically feasible.
On the question of UWI, I am not sure that I understand the objection to asking for a greater financial contribution from those who can afford it. We will happily subsidize those who have the ability to pay but can not afford it.
There is clearly something amiss, because I would have expected much greater public support for increased expenditure on primary and secondary education and vocational training as many more Barbadians would benefit from this. I guess in the minds of the public there is no great prestige in having your son or daughter attend the Polytechnic (as opposed to UWI) .
Who attended Minister John Boyce’s constituency meeting? What did hell did he report?
The problem with the transport board, I agree is that bus fares must be increased BUT, part of the bigger problem is the government and the current Board. The board to my understanding is dictating to the finance department on what to buy, where to buy it, even if the prices are not the best. Currently the buses are WITH OUT TYRES this is weeks now that there has been a severe tyre problem, buses are down for not having tyres. Alot of my co-workers are just taking a chance driving some of the buses with smooth tyres. Remember those buses that caught fire? Don’t blame the electricians, look a little closer you know what all had in common? Same type of starting motor (cheap ones from local supplier) they over heat.
Imagine that the board, is dictating that their “friends” is get purchases even if the prices are not the lowest? In these economic times they are not buying at the cheapest but at the ONE AND ONLY SUPPLIER I understand that everything from nails to soap liquid is controlled by the board. The bus batteries are crappy, cannot even get proper 6 months on them
Yes my wages are there every week, but I am one of the ones that actually care about the place, I can hardly get an hour or two overtime weekly but they are raping the board, and fattening the pockets of their friends at the expense of the workers. They are trying to get rich and their friends in one term of government. If the place was allowed to run like an ordinary place and observe best practices then and only then would it get closer to losing less.
Wow 80 million each year, never know it was so much always thougt it was around 30 or 40 mil.
So many of us know but the management seems too weak and only trying to secure their own jobs while getting their pockets fat.
Bus driver who acutally cares.
So much to say but cannot say it all.
@ Lewis // July 20, 2010 at 11:31 PM
(This is anonymous trying out a name)
So yuh tryin a ting! Well we gine soon see who “Lew” u is> I hope it in gine turn out dat U is a Loo Loo! But if your lewis is real he will understand “try me and prove me”!
@ Bush Tea……”and while we are at it, maybe Dr Reid can tell us what his organization BAMCI ACTUALLY does – apart from ‘creating frameworks’
What we need is a complete breakdown that makes sense, and which allows us to make rational decisions – how can you have such a large ‘unknown’ category listed? … this is always a sign of something to hide…”
Fair enough! Actually the correct acronym is BAMCL. The “L” is not for “learning”, although we are doing that, but for “Limited”. I think it is important for everyone to understand that what the “bamsie” can do is limited, but it should not just shake, produce “jobby”. and be wiped when the crap is over!
So I shall make sure my Board takes your concerns on board, and that it does not get bored (two meanings!) in the process.
BTW, as a student of “blogology” you may have noticed how Anonymous morphed into “Lewis”, but from his expressed ideas he is still Profavanash. If I were “Vishnu” [Bishnodat, his father] I would be worried about him.
I read Driver’s revelations with horror, though not with much surprise and a feeling of hopelessness has descended on me. We are truly nothing but a third class, third world banana republic, where government officials are interested first and foremost in lining their own pockets at the expense of the rest of us and the rest of us sigh and say “oh well”. This exposé angers me. This crap has to stop. Are there no nationalists left?
Driver, I am calling on you to put your country first. What is needed from you, and I trust you are in a position to obtain the information without exposing yourself to any fallout, is a list of suppliers to the Transport Board to be published here on BU so that it can be examined. Public pressure can then be brought to bear on the Government and the Board to change things and eliminate the corruption.
This can be made a test case, if we have the will. Are you on board? Can we rely on you to do truly national service? Be careful, I wouldn’t want to expose you to any danger.
BU David, is this in your view a cause worthy of the effort?
To start the UWI ball rolling we could do the following things:
(1) Cap the existing support at the current cash level and set up loan guarantees for additional funding in the future where the guarantee is that if you are unable to afford it by some objective measure (reverse tax credit eligibility is interesting, but may be too low a threshold) the Government pays the interest.
(2) Make the existing financial support, in 2 years time once we have had time to set up the new system, performance related: based on objective measures of teaching quality/assessment, research output (citations in peer review journals would be one measure, but there are others to be added), graduate success (starting wages of graduates versus non-graduates is one measure) and broader developmental impact (this is harder to measure and could be an unconditional part of the support).
This would not save a lot of money in cash terms from now, but it would help to stop the financial contribution spiraling way beyond our ability to afford and it would do so in a fair way (poor students still get the same support) and in a performance enhancing way.
I dont think we should give up on reforming the statutory corporations just yet. Lets try this auction business in 12 months time for 3-5 routes and see how it works. Better to try tirelessly than to sink smugly
@Inkwell
Of course BU is on board!
Successive governments have played the fool with the Transport Board. One just has to look at the subsidy for the board estimated for 2010-2011 and know that we have to do something. When the dust is settled it is the taxpayers* who are left holding the shitty end of the stick while others drive around Mercedes, travel around the world to buy buses being wined and dined at the best hotels, others who benefit from fixing flawed buses etc.
@Bosun
You probably changes your Browser in recent days which explains why your comments seem to be flying to the moderators queue. That in itself is not a problem but if you want your comments to flow freely you should try Firefox Browser.
Driver’s contribution explains the problem with the current system. How do we make the operators care about basic safety and common sense. There has to be a consequence of making bad decisions. That is the point of the auction system. One of your buses catches fire from a dodgy piece of equipment and you lose your license full stop. Outsource stuff expensively to your friends and family – and you pay not the tax payer. I agree with Black Business. Lets experiment with auctioning a few routes and see what happens. It could hardly be worse and we would learn alot, but as someone said recently, it wont happen because it would shake things up too much and too many people are just content with the way things are because they benefit privately.
So far, Driver has, IMHO, come closest to outlining what the REAL problem is (and this problem is endemic in government).
We have a set of 5-year politicians who, as characterized by Noel Lynch, see their term in Government as a mandate to become millionaires in five years.
With this hidden agenda, it is no wonder that practically all public sector agencies are inefficient/corrupt.
Now as the Bushman has always said, the first step in solving a problem is UNDERSTANDING the cause of the problem.
Auctions will only make matters worse!! Can you imaging how the bidding process will go?
If ministers charged hundreds for ZR permits, and wok for wok, how much you think they will bribe potential operators? How many contracts will go to friends and family instead of the best bids? …. and then you say government will be paying SUBSIDIES to these operators…..HA HA HA LOL
….Persaud think this is India? BTW, Bush Tea has seen the transport system in India…..
The solution is (as Inkwell suggested) to deal with the crooks. We all know that, and David Thompson promised to do so…… only to find that many of his followers disagree with any changes -at least for a few years…..
As the Bushman suggested, and David agreed, our next best option is to use these blogs to EXPOSE and shame the crooks.
All we need is for insiders to expose the rackets, expose the incompetent ‘managers’ who are put in place to facilitate the crooked minister’s hidden agendas etc
Now can someone start by telling the bushman who exactly is this woman running the Transport Board? what business did she run before to demonstrate competence to effectively manage such a large complex entity?
…or is this another “quid pro quo”…?
@ Lewis,
We do NOT need complex fancy sounding schemes like auctions (Barbados is too small for that) we need commonsense analysis (like that provided by ‘Driver’ and simple direct solutions like the one that David and Inkwell will apply just now…. that address the root causes.
@ David …. FYI
This approach is NOT going to work and Bushie already explained why – but for the record will do so again briefly…
Our (crooked) politicians are PRODUCTS of our society. They did not become crooks when they were elected. The only difference between us and them is that they have opportunities that the rest of you (oops I mean us) do not have.
I am sure that you know that many Bajans empathize with the behaviors and practices of our leaders. There is a common saying that any such person who do not steal must be a fool….
It is very hard to hold politicians to a high standard when we, within ourselves, know that we would do the same thing -given the chance. THEREFORE, even though many of us KNOW of the dishonest dealings going on, very few will be willing to spill the beans.
….see if you can work out why a society ALWAYS get EXACTLY what they deserve.
@Bushman
We had researched this matter before on another blog. Sandra Forde is a career banker who managed a branch for many years i.e.branch manager. She is a card carrying member of the DLP i.e. political hack. The same can be said about the Chairman Pedro Stanford who brings no known skills to the table as far as being able to managed the problem plagued transport board, anothe hack. So bushman as usual you are shotting, Another day in Barbados, no change, life goes on!
People like to argue that what we needs is some old fashioned honesty and decency and get rid of the crooks and we dont need to change anything else.
It sounds so right and at what level it is.
However, the problem is that people end up doing what they are incentivised to do and what they can get a way with. The structure of the system we have today is that when we change the current lot, the old lot will behave just the same irrespective of the colour of the party cards.
The purpose of the open and transparent tenders is that this behaviour is no longer incentivised and harder to get away. I once heard the President of Botswana explaining to a conference how he had cut corruption (Botswana is one of the mist successful economies in the world, growing more rapidly than China, though largely as a result of huge natural resources) and he did not mention honesty or crooks, he simply said that what he had to do and what he did was to turn corruption from a low risk, high return activity to a high risk, low return activity.
And the way you make all this nonsense a high risk low return activity is to have open and transparent tenders. BU would be able to go and see the terms a bidder won on, and those who lost, see that it was indeed a better bid, or based on a sense of ability to meet promises and check on how they are doing.
There are independent agencies that carry out auctions/tenders if we feel we are congenitally unable to do so ourselves and the results should all be on the web. Then a winning bid could hire your friends and family, but that would only screw yourself and not the tax payers if they are no good. You could cut corners on safety, but what you would be doing is risking a huge personal loss as the licence is confiscated, perhaps via an investigation launched by an annonymous tip off on BU.
Turfing out one lot for the new and raising fares does nothing but make the structural problems worse (the new lot will feel they only have five years to make their money, the higher fares will allow the inefficiencies and corrupt cost overruns to continue and it will make the cost of living even higher making it hard for people to make a decent living and so people invest less and we grow slower…..Radical change is required, not papering over the cracks.
I like the idea of using this blog to expose corrupt practices – we could have a Whistle Blowers section. We should encourage insiders to provide information but no more than what we have a right to as citizens. The techies like Halsall can advise the best way to post to the blog without risk of identification.
The introduction to the draft Freedom of Information bill (circulated for comment since 2008) states that the bill would:
“give effect to the broad provisions of section 20 of the Constitution which gives to every person the right and freedom to receive ideas and information without interference, including information held by public authorities, so as to enhance good governance through knowledge, transparency and accountability;”
So we have a right to know what our government departments and statutory boards are doing even if govt refuses to enact the legislation.
One way to apply pressure would be to publish the names and background of Board Members to help us identify the unqualified political appointees. Sometimes it is very difficult to even find out who the Board members are.
Then as noted let us know instances where ministers or boards intervene to override recommendations of staff.
Other corrupt practices? Expose them to the light!!
Bush Tea you have a fan club ………
I have introduced one of my Supervisors to the blogs (a very intelligent human being) He has fallen in love with your ideas and thinks that you should continue to keep it real.
David
Re Sandra Forde is a career banker who managed a branch for many years i.e.branch manager. She is a card carrying member of the DLP i.e. political hack.
Certainly being a branch manager of a bank does not make one an innovative leader (or a leader at all.). A conservative by the book bank manager only needs to follow the banks protocols to get to the top and stay there. Sandra must be commended for this, but my interactions with her revealed her to be a simpleton. (But them most of you say the same about me also LOL, murdah!)
kbk m
On the subject of Sandra Forde can the people get an explanation why she would have been appointed to 3 government statutory boards in less than 3 years? NHC, NIS and TB
@ JC
Have mercy JC, .. I always thought that these discussions were between us…..
Now what would a lowly bushman want with a fan club…? ….those sort of honours are reserved for big-ups like GP and Dr George Reid and those top boys so….
You trying to swell the bushman’s head or what?
@ David
….can the people get an explanation why she would have been appointed to 3 government statutory boards in less than 3 years? NHC, NIS and TB
******************************************************************************
…..did GP not just answer that question David…?
Also, do you think that there may be situations where I would appoint your uncle to my board if you appoint my sister to yours….?
Well, if the benchmark is Jepter Ince, she may know three times as much as he about book keeping and trying to limit current expenditure (less interest and capital expenditure) to current revenues.
In fact, on that measure, she may well be the next Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance……what was that you said Georgie Porgie?
@ Driver
Isn’t one of the Board members a consultant to a Ministry and also a supplier of ‘goods’ to Government?
But isn’t it strange that over the years most of the General Managers of the Transport Board has always been Bankers, Insurance men,accountants and others in similar disciplines, but the only Genera Manager to ever realize a profit for that entity was basically a Soldier/Motor Mechanic.
@Bosun: “…the only Genera[l] Manager to ever realize a profit for that entity was basically a Soldier/Motor Mechanic.
This individual should be proud of what they accomplished.
Can you share what the individual’s name is?
Or is that going too far in public in Bim?
Chris . The General Manager with that distinction , is none other than Capt Hugh Colin Hill, during his first term in the 60′s /70″s. And if we remember right, many of the Officers from the Barbados Regiment held key positions in this island and done a very good job.Major Daniel was the head of the Civil Service, Maj/Colonel Leonard Banfield ran the Prisons at one time,and was also a board member of the initial Transport Board . Colonel Downing took over the management of Haggatts Factory after Dipper Barrow relented and government purchased “the bunch of old iron” . Lionel Moe managed NPC. Lt Col Springer, BET/C&W. These men brought to these entities something that is sadly lacking ,especially in the private sector today, DISCIPLINE.
Somebody in Government got it right in recent years purchasing buses that were known to give good service and last long,…….reliability and durability. But these buses were not for the Transport Board, but rather for the Prisons, Police and the Defence Force.These are the Bluebirds, not as sleek and pretty like the Mercedes and others, but nevertheless manufactured by a Mercedes subsidiary. Relatively simple, yet effective buses. There was a rumor knocking around a few years ago that Bluebird had offered the Transport Board 6 or 7 of these buses to test, with no strings attached,and to keep at the end of the test,even if the Board dis not indicate any willingness to purchase buses from Bluebird.
The truth ,who wants buses to last 20 or 25 years when a term in parliament is only 5 years, the same is that for any political motivated appointment to the Transport Board.
GP
Sandra must be commended for this, but my interactions with her revealed her to be a simpleton
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And I thought you liked Foundation girls…. LOL…. but perhaps that was in your salad days.
GP if your “interactions” was of a commercial nature i.e Banker/Client why worry about her intellectual capacity?
For the record I think Ms Forde’s elevation to GM is a prime example of the Peter Principle.
But she does have a nice smile
Inkwell // July 22, 2010 at 5:32 AM – I can name one now. TransTech, right there in Kendal Hill since the change in G’ovt they have now come on board. The starting motors that are causing the bus fires, are supplied BY THEM. Think carefully we had one or two instances before but the last couple of fires on occured after Jan 15, 2008. The owner of Transtech is a known big supporter of the DLP and said to be a friend of many of the big ups in the party including the PM. If the Quality Assurance Mgr had balls then they would not be supplying those starting motors and flimsy indicator switches all the electricians complain about them but they are still purchased why – maybe some one in purchasing is getting a draw back – can’t say for sure. Currently they have no tyres for the big buses going on 2 weeks now and the rain falling badly. Right now my bus needs tyres they asking me to hold on.
Bosun – Blue Bird buses worked well in Trinidad they have some on the road and are also used in their prison system. I understand from some of the high up that the TB owes Simpson Motors so much money. (that is why you will not see another brand on ours roads in the near future) Yes I did hear they were offered but cannot confirm for sure.
http://www.transportboard.com/management.php
There is a board member who I understand has put his brother into some money doing freighting, getting things cleared from port, and other stuff and charging more than the last guy but have to get his name correct, will check with a source and if she knows I will post it here but I know the last name is R, MILLER
Ms Sandra Forde seems OK to us she seems to mean well but not sure what she can really do to change how the politicians think and insert their will at the Transport Board, after all that is how she came. I think that an engineer or something like that should have been the GM though. We need that type of guidance that we cannot get from the Quality Assurance Dept. (the mechanics who check the buses and do minor repairs) THEY CAN BRING BACK MR. RICHARD DAWH he was good but did not know how to play politics and actually tried to do his job effectively when he was the Quality Assurance Manager, right now there is a mechanic as the QA mgr.
Driver.- “You are in safe hands with us”
Driver,
Thank you for the information provided.
David,
Driver’s input can be the basis for a major piece on Transport Board, Trans Tech and Government, especially its relationship with Kiffin Simpson, who is known to be a big contributor to BOTH political parties. That’s why we have to keep importing these buses, for which Simpson Motors is agent.
Why was the successful business, Acme Manufacturing, killed when if was manufacturing good quality, long lasting vehicles…all of the mini buses now on the road were manufactured by them, right here in Barbados using imported chassis, twenty, twenty five years ago? The TB even has some in its fleet.
Now we are beginning to understand the REAL problem facing this country. It is called LEADERSHIP and to be quite honest, since the prime days of the Dipper, we have not had anywhere near enough of it.
Our ‘Leaders’ are nothing but a set of parasites seeking to bleed the system for their own benefits. Most of the ‘Sirs’ that we honour ever year are the master parasites who bribe, control and manipulate their political surrogates that we call leaders.
The solution really lies in the society being awakened and becoming intolerant of the nonsense. Bush Tea was hoping that the new PM would have been the one with the balls to follow in EWB’s footsteps and defy the status quo in the interest of the people, but so far no such luck….
…that leaves the other David of BU who has so far impressed way beyond the imagination….
Practically every ‘Board’ is a collection of inexperienced, unproven, political hacks who are mostly there to benefit from the stipend and invitations to Illaro Court.
If wanna doubt the bushman, select any Statuary Corporation or even School Board and review the incumbents – the same was true under the previous bunch of crooks. The system is now designed to facilitate the politicians (and their puppet masters) to get their own way, hire their own hacks, give contracts to their incompetent friends etc.
In many cases, we do not even need to have DECENT CITIZENS like Driver expose these people, a careful analysis of the public records of many of these places also show the wasteful dishonesty going on.
Maybe the coming crisis will have a silver lining after all….
There is an ad in today’s Nation where the Transport Board is asking for tenders to supply tyres and batteries, from September this year for two years. We should keep track and see who wins these contracts.
@Driver – are the bus repairs still being done by a company owned by employees, and if so, how has this been working?
Sorry if I seem to differ.Driver is still an employee of the Transport Board, and should therefore demonstrate some measure of loyalty to his employer. Has he raised these concerns at Union / departmental meetings? How long has Driver worked at the Transport Board. Did these or similar problems occurred only in the last 2-1/2 years. And if not, has Driver ever attempted to highlight these concerns in public as he is doing now?
The bushman was wondering how long it would be before some Tucker (with the capital F) would come along with that pissy argument about Driver (and other whistle blowers) needing to go to their supervisors, HR officers, Union Reps and friendly priest rather than publicly expose the blatant corruption in many of our organizations on BU.
Wanna Tuckers know very well how to ‘deal’ with such ‘goodie-two-shoes’ ent it?
The whole culture of this place is built around the system where such complaints are carefully examined, analyzed and then decisive action is taken……
…to ensure that no one else is foolish enough to make such complaints against the system again.
Anyone willing to follow this Tucker’s advice actually deserves what they get. ….not when BU is willing and able to not only expose all these crooks and schemers, but also to give them an equal opportunity to give their own side of the story so that the third (and true) side can be arrived at.
….nice try Tucker (F)!!
Mr. Mohammed Nassar has a program on the radio during which he advertises the goods and services offered by his company Majidah Rentals. Also, during this program, he takes the opportunity to promote Trans Tech Inc. Mr. Nassar is the Deputy Chairman of the Transport Board.
One thing that I can say about Mr Nassar and The Transport Board, is that he has been around the Transport Board probably from the time it was formed. He was not employed however,by the Transport Board,but by a workshop nearby which did any special welding required on any bus.
Not only has ACME built buses to last, but back in the ’60′s ,one model of British buses had a flaw in their body platforms,and ACME was brought in to rectify the problem. The modification was by far, superior for our conditions, than what the manufacturer had originally provided.And that was before ACME started to build bus bodies..
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