Drivers in spotlight

Seeking out ways in which drivers of public service vehicles (PSVs) can undergo ongoing training as opposed to a one time training session; starting training sessions for drivers of private sector vehicles as well making improvements to the River Terminal are listed among the plans that the Ministry of Transport and Works are working on executing in the near future.

 

These goals were articulated when the Minister of Transport and Works, Michael Lashley, spoke to the media after the ‘Transport Authority Service Integration (TASI) of Public Transport in Barbados Community Presentation’ on Saturday evening at the St. David’s Anglican Church.

 

Answering a question from the media with regard to a complaint about unfriendly drivers who do not wait for their passengers – particularly the elderly ones, to take a seat before they drive off – the Minister said that they do offer training to their drivers, but  with respect to the complaint, he could not offer an opinion until he investigated the matter further.

 

“We do training. We have training programmes. Only recently there was a training programme for the Transport drivers, but I can’t go on that one comment and generalize and say that ‘Well, all Transport drivers are not customer friendly’. So I am saying too that once we enhance our training programmes, instances like that would be eliminated.”

 

The Minster said that they usually have good attendance at these training sessions and therefore would continue to organize and host them so that the drivers’ standards can be enhanced. There are also plans to start training sessions for drivers of private sector vehicles.

 

 

“Yes, we usually get a good turnout, but only yesterday on speaking to private sector players, they agree with the Transport Authority, the Transport Board and the Ministry to set up a programme basically geared towards private sector operators in terms of their driving, in terms of their habits and in terms of improving their standards on the roads in relation to customers and also to other road users and so that is where we are going.”

 

Lashley also stated that they would be looking into ensuring that this training can be ongoing as opposed to just a one off thing, but  added “…we still have to bear in mind too that the drivers have to be out there on the road working. So we can’t pull them off the road, but we have to do it periodically so that it would not impact on the operators, on the profits or on the business.”

 

As for the improvements to the River Terminal, he said that is a project that his Ministry continues to work on and they would soon be looking at employing the services of a private contractor to complete the project.

 

“That is ongoing. The Ministry of Transport and Works personnel are currently working on the River Terminal and we now have to look to involve a private contractor so that we can complete the project on time.”