THE Fiji Bus Operators Association (FBOA) has called on the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to withdraw its call for expression of interest for the routes of one of its struggling members, saying the move was “unreasonable and arbitrary”.
According to a statement issued by the FBOA, the LTA published an advertisement on Saturday, April 13, 2019, calling for submissions from companies interested in operating certain routes in the Western Division.
The FBOA said the routes in question were allocated to Dominion Transport Ltd, which in recent weeks faced operational difficulties including industrial action by its drivers.
FBOA general secretary Rohit Latchan said at the time, Dominion Transport Ltd was unable to operate services because the company was unable to meet the demands of its drivers.
“The factors that brought a halt to bus services are well known and predictable,” he said.
“Bus companies are unable to continue functioning on a 10-year-old fare structure with ever-rising operational costs.
“The LTA should act reasonably, understand the situation and not to worsen the environment for already besieged operators.
“The authority should work with the bus industry to make it sustainable and find a way forward.
“Instead of following due processes in dealing with Dominion Transport Ltd, the LTA has taken the step of immediately calling for an expression of interest.
“In cases where the LTA believes an operator has not fulfilled its obligations, the first step would be to issue the company a warning.
“If this fails, the operator can be called to ‘show cause’ before the LTA board as to why it is unable to operate its assigned routes.
“Only when these avenues are exhausted and the LTA thinks it’s appropriate, should it call for expression of interest.”
Mr Latchan said bus operators did not want to intentionally withdraw services because of the impact on the thousands of people who were heavily dependent on it.
He said the call for a bus fare review was not unreasonable.
“At present, passengers only pay 68 cents for the first stage (six kilometres), less than the price of a loaf of bread.
“For the industry to survive, the FBOA has proposed an interim measure of increasing fares of only the first four stages, which is where a majority of companies’ operational costs are incurred.
“Stage one fare is proposed to be set at $1, Stage two is proposed to rise to $1.30, Stage three to be set at $1.70 and Stage four to be set at $2. All other stages would remain unchanged until a final determination on fares is made by the authorities.”
Questions sent to LTA on Thursday and again yesterday remained unanswered.
