DRIVERS OF minibuses and route taxis which do not have conductors must now show two badges, or face the law courts.
Police and the Barbados Licensing Authority have been cracking down on those drivers recently, and according to Inspector Leon Blades of the Traffic Division, the need for such badges was long addressed by the law “but wasn’t enforced rigidly”.
He added that while in the past there were hardly any privately-owned public service vehicles (PSV) without conductors, it was possible that the current economic crisis had created the situation where some drivers were now doing both jobs.
A senior official of the Barbados Licensing Authority confirmed that personnel from his department as well as police officers had been checking on badges for drivers and conductors in the Bridgetown, Oistins and Speightstown terminals this week.
“From time to time we do exercises on the roads and concentrate on different areas, including taxes, badges and so on. This is ongoing. A driver without a conductor should in fact have two badges,” the official source told the Saturday SUN.
But Judy Forde, former vice-president of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO), insisted yesterday that the badge requirement had not been enforced before, and was surprised that drivers in the last three days had complained to her about being asked to pay for two badges because they did not have conductors.
Pointing to the Government-owned Transport Board, she argued that the drivers only had to pay for one badge; but Blades noted that the difference was that the Transport Board drivers didn’t make cash transactions.
“I don’t want to say it’s unfair since it is the law, but this wasn’t enforced before; and now that the cost of badges has been reduced, it’s apparently being enforced,” said Forde, noting that the $80 badges had cost about $300 before.
She also said some operators and drivers had stopped using conductors because they seemed to be “creating problems by soliciting people and cursing on the streets”.
Meanwhile, the Licensing Authority yesterday referred to Regulations 6 (1A), 6 (1B), 8 (3) and 8 (4) of the Road Traffic Regulations 1984, showing that no person should perform the role of a PSV driver or conductor without holding the appropriate licence and badge. (RJ)
