A special initiative is on to bring an end to “rebelling” and other bad practices by ZR van drivers and conductors.
Roy Raphael, chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport, said ZR owners were looking at introducing customer service training to address rowdy behaviour by some drivers and conductors seeking to get passengers to board their vans in the congested bus stand.
He told Barbados TODAY that the practice, known as “rebelling”, was a headache for owners and was particularly a problem in the southern end of the River Road van stand because too many vehicles were assembled in one space competing for passengers.
Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport, Roy Raphael
“When a fella [PSV operator] rebel, he is going to create anger, frustration and then from there you will get fights,” Raphael explained. “So we are saying that we need to see the days of rebelling coming to an end.”
He added: “But let us get real about rebelling. Rebelling is about making money. A fella come and want to make a certain amount of money per day, his intention is to make that money. . . If a fella go out there and he decides he wants 300 dollars per day and there are 15 vans on his route, he is going to rebel.”
To deal with the problem of congestion, Raphael said the Ministry of Transport and his alliance were having discussions and the question of relocating some of the vans and mini busses to the northern end of the van stand was proposed.
“There are too many vans down there. Presently, I am suggesting relocating some of those vans until the van stand is fixed,” he said.
Raphael said for a decline in overall complaints against PSV’s to take place, the Ministry of Transport and stakeholders had to work together.
The proposed customer service training will be delivered through a proposed School of Excellence where operators will be trained in the areas of conflict resolution, safe driving practices, customer service and first aid, among other things.
“We realize training is very important. We are currently looking at putting the school in place so we can get the training started,” Raphael said.