National Transport buses to be impounded

It’s official: National Transport buses will not be allowed to continue operating. But the Novelo brothers aren’t taking the decision by the Transport Board lying down. Today there were two press conferences, one called by the Board and the other by the brothers. News Five was both and brings you the latest in the continuing trouble on Belize’s highways.

Cedric Borland, Chairman, Transport Board
?We have many bus operators operating without road service permits, have never held a road service permit. This is what is really causing the chaos and confusion on the highways. The Board has taken its step having received charges of bus operating without insurance permit to seriously look at the next step of impounding buses.?

Janelle Chanona
And that message was not lost on the Novelo family, operators of National Transport, who this week have admitted to conducting runs on the highway without road service permits and using unlicensed vehicles. Now, with the threat of the buses being impounded by police, this morning they started legal proceedings to get an injunction against the Transport Board. According to the Novelo family attorney, Hubert Elrington, a document signed in 2002 has entrusted his clients with the rights to provide service to the Belizean people.

Hubert Elrington, Attorney for the Novelo family
?What I know to exist is in fact a contract signed by both parties, dated, and in writing, very detailed, very specific and that seems to me to be a valid document.?

Janelle Chanona
?What?s the date of that document??

Hubert Elrington
?The date of that document is the seventeenth of November 2002.?

?If you issue an exclusive, unless you don?t know the meaning of exclusive, then you have no right to be issuing contracts or permits to other people. An exclusive is an exclusive. And even when they give permits in respect of a particular run, maybe two or three months later somebody else is on the run who just comes in as a person without any permit but is allowed to run. So the whole thing is in a state of confusion.?

Jose Coye, Minister of Transport
?It?s not valid. That does not give them the right to use those buses on the road.?

But according to Minister of Transport Jose Coye, while three companies owned by the Novelos do have legal road permits, National Transport does not.

Jose Coye
?To me it was an intention at the time to provide some limited concession, not exclusivity, because they could not have provided exclusivity, the law could not have allowed that given the circumstances. But it was an intention, I will say the letter was to give it to, I think it was National Transport. That was never pursued because that in itself was not enough. If that was to be effective, if it was the intent by the then minister, then for that to be effective it had to go to National Assembly, because the Transport Board itself cannot grant such permission.?

?Once you are operating illegally, we have given you the grace period, come in, straighten up. If you continue not to comply with the law we will apply the law in terms of its penalty. So firstly I must say here, if we are to bring about the safety and all the things that we are doing now to bring order and to improve the transportation system in this country, we have to first be seen that we can regulate.?

But part of state of confusion has been aided by a letter sent out by Commissioner of Transport Phillip Brackett, which allowed expired permits to be used on the road.

Janelle Chanona
?You basically sent out a general letter to the President of the Bus Owners Association saying, continue operating with expired permits. We?ve heard it described as a bureaucratic snafu. As Commissioner of Transport, can you say what went wrong? Who is to blame here??

Phillip Brackett, Commissioner of Transport
?Well the answer to that is that a commitment–as you are aware the transportation industry, the bus industry is a very sensitive industry as we saw a couple day ago. A commitment was made to the National Bus Owners organisation to review the price of road service permits.?

?So that commitment was made and we didn?t a Transport Board for a long time, we recently got a new Transport Board and so activity to follow through on that commitment came first from the board and then it was later followed with support from the minister and the Cabinet.?

Janelle Chanona
?So Government dragged its foot in appointing a Transport Board and Government was dragging its feet in coming up with a new price for road service permits??

Phillip Bracket
?We had to be extremely?like I say, the industry, there was threat last year, there was threat of the bus owners doing precisely what occurred a few days ago. There was the possibility of shutting down the industry, because the bus owners were insisting that they want this decrease.?

Janelle Chanona
?Why then didn?t the Commissioner of Transport and the Transport Department then say, well you know what we?re taking a little bit longer than we thought on this road service permit, so we?re just going to issue you a one-month or however time frame you thought you would have needed, but to make everything legal. Why sent out a letter saying you can go ahead using expired permits and then make this situation kind of blow up where everybody can say, you know what, government is condoning illegalities, so why can?t I go ahead. That?s what I?m trying to get from you.?

Phillip Bracket
?Perhaps that may have been an error on our part, but like I said, the situation in the industry is very volatile and a decision was made by the former board to do this, which I acted on instructions from the board to tell the providers to continue operating with the intention that the board was going to address it and that it was gonna take all the steps and we get an SI.?

Hubert Elrington
?In my view, the time has passed to be asking is it Novelo?s fault, is it the receiver?s fault, or whose fault it is. The thing is in a state of collapse. If we don?t do something about it, if all the parties concerned do not get together and understand that it is facing a serious crisis and that action is needed on a national scale with a certain amount of understanding of the system and proper analysis of what is involved, the whole thing is going to collapse.?

Jose Coye
?I don?t think it will ever be serious indeed until when any prospective investor sense that the government is serious about enforcing the regulations. Because if we are to have a bus system in this country where the buses are just running wild out there and there is no enforcement of regulations, who would want to invest. So what we need to do is in fact to ensure that the regulation is there and that we are enforcing it.?

David Novelo, Manager, National Transport
?What the Novelo?s family at this time would wish is to see that the family name be cleared of all the negative perception that has been created out there. We feel that out of all the different loans that had been given in this country, our one is a bona fide one, our one had a purpose and the purpose was the people.?

According to transport officials, a five year implementation plan is underway to create a zoned, well-regulated bus industry with safe commuting for the travelling community.