The Tribune

The bus drivers union's president yesterday reiterated that his members urgently need a fare increase as their incomes continue to be squeezed by the ever-increasing cost of living

Rudolph Taylor, the Bahamas Unified Bus Drivers Union's (BUDU) president, told Tribune Business his members have reached the point of frustration with the Ministry of Housing and Transport's lack of movement on the issue amid reports that some jitney drivers have already begun charging passengers $1.50, which represents a 25 cent increase, even though this has not been enacted in law.

“I wouldn’t say that we endorse the bus drivers increasing the bus fares, and I wouldn’t say that we don’t endorse them increasing them, but we have been in discussion with the Ministry of Transport off and on," he said. He added that these talks first started in 2008, some 15 years ago, and this year is the closest that the drivers have come to getting one.

Mr Taylor, though, said he wants to keep the union on one page given how close they are to getting that increase. “The minister (JoBeth Coleby-Davis) said she wants to have a series of town hall meetings the last time I spoke with her, and that was in the month of April," he added.

"She said she would bring the matter to the public and I was giving her that respect to do that. So I kept my mouth shut and am still waiting on her to have that town hall meeting with regard to the bussing industry. At the end of the day I can tell them as much as possible, but diesel has gone up and you can feel the plight of the drivers in terms of their frustration of waiting and waiting and promises from 2008 to now, and there is only so much talking the unions can do with regard to the bussing industry. The rest falls squarely at the feet of the Government."

The other group in the jitney fare conversation is the United Public Transportation Company (UPTC), whose members are the jitney franchise owners. The BUDU represents the drivers, some of whom own the vehicles they are driving but they are renting licences from franchise holders.

“There are some issues with the industry that need to be sorted out and this is one of them. Some of us are owners but we don’t own the franchise,” Mr Taylor said. “This disadvantages those who own their own busses. Changes to this is what we have been pushing for for roughly the last 15 years - to get persons to become franchise owners. Some of them who own the franchise, they are just fleecing the drivers who want to be their own boss.”