Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), Roy Raphael, has hailed a largely successful 2023 in the transport sector and remains optimistic about next year.
Raphael reviewed how the year went for public service operators in Barbados for the NationOnline.
“It was great. We would have seen a number of persons catching our public service vehicles (PSVs) as well as our taxis. When you assess the situation particularly in the area of taxis, they did pretty well. There are mixed feelings amongst those with PSVs because as we would have seen more people hitching rides with people or acquiring their own vehicles and that would have contributed to the slight drop off of persons taking public service transport when you compare it to the last two years. However, there was a rapid pickup in the two days before Christmas Eve so generally it was a good year.”
But there is to be no resting on their laurels either, with Raphael announcing plans for 2024.
“In the new year though, we are hoping to launch a project called The Transport Energy Project where we will see more electric vehicles in the transport arena. That project should be launched by the end of January and we are hoping to see additional buses in the transport sector,” he said.
The plan is to bring in at least 15 electric buses into the programme and discussions are ongoing with stakeholders from China and India who have electric vehicles. There are also talks ongoing between the AOPT and the Ministry of Energy over the framework of the plan since the Government has made more than $3 million available for the sector to borrow. There are also loans available through Fund Access and Enterprise Growth Fund.
However, the launch of this project by the original date of the end of January is dependent on successful talks between the AOPT and the Transport Authority which has not yet agreed to meet for discussions, according to Raphael.
“The problem is if we don’t meet with them, it will hamper our launching of the Transport Energy project for sure because in order for us to launch the project we need to get permits and blessing from both the Transport Board and Transport Authority. We have been making efforts within the last three months to meet with them and up to this date we’ve seen no movement. There have been about 20 to 25 persons who have applied to the Transport Board to get permits to operate an electric vehicle. The project is set to begin at the end of January. If we don’t get the blessing of the Ministry of Transport, that project will have to [be] put on hold.”
Raphael said some of the other concerns facing the sector this year has been the increase in operating costs including the increase of insurance rates.
“On top of that (higher insurance rates) we’ve also seen an increase in vehicular maintenance and this would be attributed to the road damages or road repairs that need to be done. We’ve also seen a slight increase in money spent on diesel and gasoline. We spent over $15 million among the 800 vehicles on fossil fuel and we hope we can reduce that when the Transport Energy Project is launched,” he added.
If launched, the project would be one of a number of initiatives to make Barbados greener. Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced in March that the Excise Tax and Value Added Tax holiday on electric vehicles was being extended by two years. In April she also informed Barbadians that postal workers would be able to borrow up to $25 000 to acquire electric motor cycles.