Treat transport inspectors and operators better

RECENTLY, THERE was a televised news item in which a spokesperson for the transport operators read from the transport inspectors' contract in which their performance criteria are outlined. Apparently, for a few years the transport inspectors have been given quotas of seizures and prosecutions they have to make every month. This is unreasonable to transport inspectors.

It is similar to an inspector of police being given a performance criteria which include the number of prosecutions that must be made for rape and murder for each month. That would be patently unfair and ridiculous. Instead, the inspector of police should be judged on the percentage of rape and murder cases prosecuted and solved.

Something must be wrong with a management team that would design impossible targets for transport inspectors. The Transport Authority should be encouraging, through a public education campaign, transport operators to transport commuters comfortably and safely.

Antagonistic relationship

What these quotas have done is to develop an antagonistic relationship between inspectors and operators. The inspectors in an attempt to meet their quotas of prosecutions, with the help of Justices of the Peace, will not be lenient for the slightest of infraction, and it is not inconceivable that some inspectors will fabricate infractions in order to meet these impossible performance criteria. In addition, they might demand a bribe to turn a blind eye to compensate for missing their performance targets.

These performance criteria should be withdrawn from the contracts of inspectors forthwith and those persons who designed these unfair quotas of prosecutions should be disciplined. Instead, the transport inspectors' performance should be evaluated more by their having effective and efficient routes, satisfied commuters, orderly transport sector and a harmonious relationship with transport operators. The inspectors and operators should not be adversaries but rather cooperate to deliver a comfortable and safe ride for commuters.

Adversarial positions will lead to protests. It is no wonder that there are protests by transport operators. Garnett Roper, president of Jamaica Theological Seminary, highlighted the plight of transport operators, who have been protesting against the treatment by the Transport Authority. It is claimed that there is widespread harassment and improper seizing of vehicles, along with harsh punishment for minor infractions ('State treating transport operators with little respect', Gleaner, August 18). There was even an allegation of a transport inspector deliberately driving a vehicle into a transport operator's vehicle, thereby causing injury to the operator. This situation has the potential to explode.

Oppressed operators

Many persons enter the transport business because they have lost their jobs and they are trying to provide for their families. To 'box' food from their mouths can affect the survival of these operators and their families. The operators are being oppressed in other ways. The fares they can charge are established by the government, but the operators' inputs, such as gasolene, can change from week to week with no change in the set fares. Auto parts and maintenance costs will climb but the fares remain the same for years. The cost of living will be going up and the fares remain. The Jamaica Public Service has a clause in its contract wherein the changes in fuel costs are passed on to customers, but transport operators do not have such a luxury. Other industries establish their prices based on the market, but transport operators have theirs established by the government. The government does not set the price for goods and services offered by the private sector.

The operators are being hit by an oppressive Transport Authority and an unjust pricing system. The Transport Authority ought to work towards an orderly and organised transport sector, and this can be achieved by treating the transport inspectors and operators better.

Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church in St Andrew. Comments to columns@gleanerjm.com