Hmmm…………

Minister Boyce has wrecked every ministry he has touched. Our roads are in they poorest state ever. Transport Board has not bought a new bus since 2007. This man has provided non leadership and has a good management team at Transport Board but continues to frustrate and delay any improvement plans submitted by the GM and Chairman.

John Boyce is known to frustrate workers and employees where evr he has worked, can’t say manage as he is a failure at that. Help us please……

There was also a situation,similar to the Holetown incident where another rear axle was separated from a bus in July last year on the ABC Highway near to the Lowlands Junction.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belfast1970/5933689963/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belfast1970/5933689963/in/photostream/
The first line of preventive maintenance begins with the driver.In many organisations , outside of Barbados, of course, drivers are required to carry out basic checks, before taking the vehicle out of the depot, and again when it returns to the depot at the end of the shift . Also during the course of the day, or night, when the bus reaches its destination, and is about to turn around, a walk around, ”Kick -the-tyres” check should be carried out by the driver. Very often a unit may leave the depot in perfect working order,and due to the roller coaster rides on many of our highways , items such as tyres ,fuel tanks etc may become loose . The unions,I believe does not encourage drivers here to carry out these vital basic safety check. Some years ago , a friend of mine, a qualified engineer stopped a Transport Board bus and informed the driver that the unit was spilling engine oil on the road. He replied that he was not a mechanic, and proceeded to drive the bus, and eventually , the engine stalled, probably seized costing tens of thousands of dollars to replace it.
These days we hear many pushing the idea of privatising the Transport Board. The Maintenance of the running stock has now been fully privatised, and we are seeing the results . When the Transport Board had its own workshop and maintenance staff, these guys were very dedicated and realised what it meant for a bus to break down or spend an inordinately amount of down time in the workshop. But today Downtime and Breakdowns puts money into the contractors pockets.
David, we have no standards in Barbados. UCAL, the Transport Board or the Licensing Authority. Everyone does his own thing, that is why when one of these PSV is involved in a serious accident, like that which occured in Joes River , no one can be held accountable.

The problem at the Transportboard is strictly a political problem. Politicians have ruined the TB there is no reason that it should be loosing so much money but after all their “friends” have to make money to give back something when the time for financing comes. And I mean both parties, although I understand that this current board is the worst that the TB has ever had, all of the major repairs and a great deal of the minor repairs are out sourced.

The outside contractors L & N workshop, (they do good work) Quality Care, Simpson Motors and Transtech are killing and draining the TB of resources. Alot of parts I understand are wasted by Quality Care and Transtech well a true friend would pay those kind of prices. Unfortunately, the Chairman has a close relationship with Transtech and the Deputy chairman has one with Quality Care so the tax payers would always be smelling hell and the TB loosing millions yearly. The outsourcing of mechanical work is what is really killing the TB, that and some of the board members making sure their friends get all the contracts. Imagine a bus has a flat and Quality Care get over $400. dollars (yes four hundred) and like I said over. Thats to fix the flat and to travel there.

What transport board needs is a hands off from politicians, fair tendering for contracts (yes the only go to the partisian people) and the workshop back with proper foremen and supervisors those outside contractors not even Simpson Motors can fix those buses like the folks at UCAL. And UCAL is cheapest of them all. The politicians have raped and abused the transport board and are now shouting privatise because the chamber fo commerce etc are complaining.

When tenders were given for cheap no good batteries and no good expensive tyres did they not know (the board that is, both governments) that I would be costing the taxpayers dearly to buy that crap?

Oh and a lot of those mishaps occur on buses fixed mainly by Transtech and Quality Care. Imagine the Sheraton accident the guys transtech did not reattached the brakes, so the driver she had no brakes when she went to stop. Transtech fixed the bus so a was a hush hush thing. And axle falling off in holetown, well the driver complain about a “noise” for months but no one took him seriously – said he just did not want to work etc. But glad that BM586 did not cause and lost of life to those school children on board.

If we are so insensitive in decision making as it affects lives, what is left to be discussed?

thank you

You are seeing the symptoms of a larger problem. The problem is that the entire TB system is corrupt and decisions are being made based on personal gain, not ‘best practices’. The problem starts with the buses themselves which, despite having been proved unsuitable for service in Bim, were continually bought in over several supply contracts. In some cases buses are using two or three transmissions per year when private sector weight-equivalent trucks are using one every eight or ten years. 15 years ago it was decided due to the workshop fiasco (half the units out of service, one mechanic employed for each bus etc.) that the maintenance would be tendered out; this plan changed when Trotman flexed his BWU muscle and formed UCAL with the same ‘technicians’ and supervisors who brought the system to its knees in the first place. The answer to this, like so many other national problems, is to let the free market work to provide the bus service. If fares are fixed, routes publicly auctioned every five years and illegal practices properly policed and prosecuted (without corruption determining penalties based on who owns the license as is currently the case) the market will sort itself out.

“MAINTENANCE” at all levels is a foreign word in Barbados, whether its housing, health, Transport Board, infrastructure etc. Government continually buys new STUFF as the cure all to all sorts of ills which is unproductive and ineffective.

I am under the impression also that many of the Transport Board’s buses are not fitted with head lamp did switches. How else can one explain the reluctance of many bus drivers to extend the courtesy of dipping from headlight main beam on approaching oncoming traffic, even when signalled by other drivers to do so.

A project gone bad?

“We’re not laying off any staff; the whole staff is with us. . . I have got a request from [Transport Board] that they want to see an arrangement where we service many more buses and automobiles at night so that by the morning they are assured of the numbers to get the kids to school and to get the specialised arrangements,” said Sir Roy.

http://barpublish.bits.baseview.com/newnation/story/358016652016914.php

Perhaps what the Transport Board needs, is a ‘Base Workshop” , where buses on reaching a certain age can be completely overhauled and have its life extended for a number of years. We tend to forget that the British Leyland Tiger Cubs, with their Pneumo-Cyclic gearboxes, gave this country 25 + years of sterling service.
There are some transport entities in Barbados with trucks well over 20 years old,that are still quite serviceable and economical to operate. Age is not an overriding criteria to renew a piece of equipment, providing that it has been well and adequately maintained.

BUt if we privatize the transportation sector does the government renege on its social responsibility to ensure there is affordable transportation?

The solution must be to fix the problem and not pass the buck at the expense of taxpayers.

@enuff

Thanks and if you post a link which maps how they do, appreciated.

@ David; we have systems in place to regulate consumer prices for national services like BL&P. The purpose of Gov’t is to regulate, facilitate, tax. The last administration got the facilitation and taxing done right, this administration can’t even spell facilitate but they sure understand taxing. There is no service or product currently provided by Gov’t that the private sector couldn’t do better/cheaper/more efficiently. If our regulatory bodies are in place and functioning.

Can we say that we have seen an improvement in the on time service of the Transport Board?

Have we seen and improvement in the maintenance program?

Have we seen a reduction in the government subsidy?

Have we seen a focus on the PSV sector?

Have we seen an effective Transport Authority?

Hello ” Dark & Lovely” it is you who is blinded by political alliance.
If you take an objective view, you will see that the bus stock has not been added to. It would make sense to buy smaller buses for some routes.
By defending the politician you are making the management team at TB look bad, They are good people just hindered by incompetent political directorship.
Wish TB had a decisive and clear leader like Donville Inniss. HE has turned around the health ministry. The same cannot be said of the big voice man who is and will always be an incompetent manager.

We need help more than ever……

islandgal246 | July 25, 2012 at 8:43 PM |
As it is ! | July 24, 2012 at 10:45 PM |
.. Boyce came in on a swing and will leave on a swing.
…………………………………………….
Then again it could be a Roundabout that he is going out on.
(What you gain on the swings, you loose on the Roundabout)

Really and truly! what is the use and function of the Transport Authority ? Seems to me that they can hold hand with Malcolm Taitt and his Consumer organisation,as well as the Fair Trade Commission. They all understand the meaning, “Money for Old Rope”, taxpayers money.

@Buggy

What do you expect? Isn’t the head of the Transport Authority one Mr King who is head of the Ch Ch Constituency Council?

General info: Mr. King is head of the Christ Church South constituency branch..
The Transport Authority is also as dead and ineffective as the MTW and the Transport Board…common factor; John Boyce giving new meaning to non leadership.

Lord hear our prays…..

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