Dark tints on JUTC buses must go

THE EDITOR, Sir:

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) seems to be up to its old ways of mismanagement. This time it is with the midnight-tinted windows on its latest set of buses. To add insult to injury, JUTC communications manager, Reginald Allen, has tried to sugar-coat the blatant error in having such tinted buses on the road by talking rubbish about the JUTC's public image being different from others and that the tint met international standards. What about Jamaica's standards?

Fortunately, Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry sees things differently and has asked for the matter to be corrected, and we hope he's serious because, with men like Mr Allen around, it may be business as usual.

Custom-built standard

We have to wonder about the lack of proper management at the JUTC, which allowed these buses to come from the manufacturers with midnight tint on the windows when the police and transport authority have been carrying out a crackdown on public-passenger vehicles which are tinted. Does the JUTC have a custom-built standard for its buses, or does it just take what the manufacturer delivers? If the JUTC had its standard stated to the manufacturer, Mr Allen could not have uttered such nonsense about the buses meeting international standards. So, management needs to answer some questions!

The JUTC has had a bad management record, which makes us wonder if the company has changed for the better. For example, what about the vehicle locators which were purchased with the aim of finding buses on the road, hence, the need to reduce supervision on the road?

Why are so many supervisors still in the system? Have the vehicle locators become dysfunctional? Or is it that the public purse doesn't mind? What is the accident record for these new buses since they were deployed in the system? Why are these new buses smoking so heavily from the muffler? These are questions that Minister Henry needs to answer.

It cannot be business as usual at the JUTC.

I am, etc.,

NORMAN CLARKE

Kingston 6