THERE was a media report that commuters who attended the recent Mashramani celebrations were overcharged by the mini-buses with fares being many hundred percent above the norm. The overcharges were extorted from those commuters who were returning home after dark and especially those who live farthest from Georgetown in such districts as the West Coast and West Bank of Demerara. The same pattern of overcharging occurs at Christmas and Easter.
The mini-bus fares are arrived at after discussions between the Minibus Association and the Ministry of Business. These discussions occur periodically and take into account, increases in gasoline prices, spare parts replacements, wages and other miscellaneous costs. The agreed fares are displayed in the buses and the overcharging occurs when the mini-buses charge more than the agreed fares displayed in the bus.
Mini-buses, as compared with buses run by large companies offer the consumer certain advantages: they pick up and discharge commuters anywhere along the route rather than at specific bus stops and so they provide a more convenient service. Since they do not run on schedules, they save the passenger waiting time. And lastly, they provide more employment than a bus company.
Putting aside these advantages, mini-bus travel has many disadvantages and abuses which have to be addressed and eliminated, since they cause the commuter much inconvenience.
One of the major and persistent complaints is the extremely loud music which almost all mini-buses play since they are all equipped with tape players. Such noise could impair the hearing of passengers, since it is usually far above 80 decibels and may sometimes go to 120 decibels. This persistent loud noise affects the conductors and drivers more than the passengers, since they subject themselves to it for many hours per day and a good proportion of them become hard of hearing. Further, many of the songs played are very vulgar, racist and are derogatory of women and if a passenger protests, the conductor and driver order him/her off the bus in the rudest manner. Some years ago, Parliament passed legislation against music and noise in the buses and the police successfully acted for a few months but then ceased enforcing the law. If the police were to remove all tape players from the buses, in less than three months they would have eliminated the noise nuisance.
Another abuse practised by some minibuses is that they never pick up old or otherly abled persons and even at the terminals, they prevent old people from entering the buses. This form of discrimination is illegal, but the victims are unable to seek redress. A police presence would be useful at the terminals, especially at the rush hours.
At the terminals, touts often harass passengers, sometimes dragging them to their buses or holding the hands of women or even putting their arms over their shoulders. Sometimes, touts quarrel or fight over passengers spreading fear among commuters. It is only a police presence that could effectively control touting.
Another problem which is common to most mini-buses is their ventilation. Some buses were designed for use in temperate countries, so their windows are smaller and they depend on air-conditioning. No buses, however, use air conditioners. More importantly, the bus windows often do not function or the conductors do not open them. Being in a hot, congested, ill-ventilated bus will always subject passengers to air-borne diseases such as, for example, colds or influenza.
Speeding is another common abuse of the mini-buses. Speeding causes accidents and endangers the life and limb of passengers. Mini-bus drivers speed for the thrill of so doing, despite the slogan “speed thrills but speed kills.” Probably, the major reason for the speeding is the attempt to make as many trips as possible. This is especially true of drivers who rent mini-buses where they have to pay the owners a fixed sum of say, $10,000 per day. Radar checking on the roads would help, but a policeman in plainclothes travelling with a known speeder would be effective in curbing this abuse.
The malpractices of the minibuses could be curbed if there was a more proactive police presence and as importantly, to have them agree to several conditions negating their possible abuses when granting them their licences on the pain of having the licence suspended for infringement of the conditions.
