Fighting for the Survival of the Public Transportation Industry

B.B.A. President Thomas Shaw says that the bus operators only just received the letter last week of the new deadline, giving them only two months to replace their entire fleet. He says, B.B.A. members have been complying; upgrading fifty percent of their buses before a phase out in December 2024.  During the COVID pandemic, a subsidy allowed for bus operators to stay afloat, but this deadline threatens the survival of the public transportation industry that is already challenged by increased expenses. 

Thomas Shaw, President, Belizean Bus Association

Thomas Shaw

“Since then, social security went up – increase in social security. When we got that subsidy, fuel was just eleven dollars a gallon and we were fighting for it. Right now the fuel is thirteen dollars and thirty-five cents per gallon. A tire you used to pay four hundred dollars for is like eight hundred dollars now. If you buy a gallon of synthetic oil, it’s a little over a hundred dollars; if you buy the inferior oil, you can get that for like thirteen fourteen dollars. So what we are looking at right now it’s not feasible in other words for what they are asking for. What we intend to achieve that cooler heads prevail, let the minister sit down with us because I know he is a businessman and he knows about business because he has a family and having a family is much easier than dealing with buses. In this country, we have over three hundred and fifty operators so you do the calculation. Each bus, two three persons per bus and they have a family; you see what the bus industry does to this country. I mean when we look at the sugar, when we look at the citrus, we see everything is falling apart. Everything is falling apart, so what we are trying to do, we are trying to preserve this that is left. Even my colleague, he has brand new buses and if you should speak to him right now – Floralia – he is going to tell you that the fares are too low.”