Transport operators fuming over amendment to TA Act Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) will be looking at the recently amended Transport Authority Act that could see transport operators fined up to $500,000 or serve six months in prison for using ‘bad words’ to members of the Transport Authority, who are on duty.

The various transport associations were not consulted — as is customary with other sectors that would be affected by any change in law — before the amendment was pushed through.

Recently when the Education Bill was being discussed, the Jamaica Teachers Association was represented in the committee stage of the Bill.

President of TODSS Edgerton Newman said that whilst he has always implored transport operators to be respectful of law officers and passengers, that piece of legislation is unfortunate.

“We are saying to lawmakers rethink that because you are going to have a hard time in court with us. What one must understand is that the government must spend serious time looking at crime in the country,” Newman said.

Newman pointed out that the new Transportation Act and the Road Traffic Act were implemented to reduce fatal crashes on our roads.

“How is bad word going to reduce fatal crashes on our road? We are concerned. We are putting this piece of legislation before our legal team before we make any strong comment,” he said.

He said the government has been using the Transportation Act and the Road Traffic Act to earn monies off transport operators.

“You as a private man who work at a media house can tell members of the Transport Authority any amount of bad words and nothing comes of it but if I say ‘damn’ to a Transport Authority inspector I am charged $500,000. We are guinea pigs,” he exclaimed.

Newman added: “Who is killing people on our roads? Who killed 482 people on our road last year, not taxi man. [It] is the high-end man who do anything on the road and can get away [with it].”

Meanwhile some transport operators in Spanish Town and Portmore, St Catherine are fuming at the recent amendment of the Act.

“They should go look for police who are hitmen and criminals who they give red plate to that are kidnapping and robbing people because real taxi men are not into that. The transport inspectors don’t have any manners, they treat us like dogs — and now they have power to send us to prison if we answer them,” said Conroy who operates in Spanish Town.

Speedy who plies the Waterford Route pointed out that this is just a new way of exploiting taxi operators for money. “They don’t respect us, and treat our sector like it is a hustle. We pay taxes even more than many Jamaicans but we get treated the worst,” she said.

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