Stalled!

John Brown* was trying to pick up passengers in downtown Kingston on a busy Thursday afternoon last month when inspectors from the Transport Authority (TA) blocked his Toyota Probox motor car with red plates affixed.

The TA was established by law in 1987 to regulate and monitor the public transportation sector in Jamaica.

All the documents for Brown’s vehicle were up to date, including the hackney carriage licence that he was issued by the regulatory body, he recounted during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last Friday.

But within minutes, the inspectors cited him for operating contrary to the hackney carriage licence, and the Probox placed on a wrecker and taken to the TA’s impound facility on Water Lane, also in downtown Kingston.

Under Section 13 (2)(a) – (ii through iv) – of the Transport Authority Act 1987, inspectors are authorised to seize a vehicle where the operator is found to be operating contrary to their road licence.

Brown’s case falls under Section 13 (2)(a)(ii), which permits the seizure of a vehicle licensed as a hackney carriage but operated as a stage carriage, route taxi or express carriage.

Section 13 (2)(a) outlines five additional breaches that may also result in seizure.

However, in 2022, Parliament approved amendments to the Transport Authority Act that removed those seizure powers.

The Transport Authority (Amendment) Act 2022 was passed in the House of Representatives – or the Lower House – on July 19, 2022, Gordon House, the seat of Jamaica’s Parliament, confirmed last week.

Ten days later, it was approved by the Senate – or the Upper House – and sent back to the Lower House with 11 amendments.

On August 5, 2022, the House of Representatives agreed to the amendments made by the Senate and gave final approval to the amended legislation.

But three and a half years later, the Transport Authority (Amendment) Act 2022 is “not yet in effect”, Transport Minister Daryl Vaz and the TA confirmed to The Sunday Gleaner last week.

“We are awaiting the promulgation of the TA regulations,” Vaz explained.

Merdina Callum, communications manager at the TA, said the regulations are currently being drafted by the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel.

“The authority is indeed aware that the Transport Authority (Amendment) – TAAA – Act 2022 was passed in 2022. However, the TAA Act is not yet in force. The minister has not appointed a day for the act to come into operation,” she said, while indicating that enforcement continues under the 1987 TA law.

Since the start of 2023, TA inspectors have seized 900 public passenger vehicles (PPVs) whose operators were cited for operating contrary to their licences, the regulatory body confirmed.

Some 330 seizures of PPVs were recorded in 2023; 285 in 2024; and 285 last year.

Egerton Newman, president of the advocacy group Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS), believes industry players like Brown operate contrary to their licence because of a significant shortfall in the number of bus seats available across the Corporate Area.

“We have been picking up the slots for the past ten years,” Newman said.

The Government-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company has repeatedly acknowledged that it is falling short of the 25,000 to 31,000 seats it is mandated to provide for commuters daily within the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) as part of its licence.

The KMTR covers Kingston and St Andrew as well as Spanish Town and Portmore in St Catherine.

Brown said his Toyota Probox motor car – his only source of income – was released by the TA six days after it was seized, by which time he had lost income totalling $90,000 – $15,000 per day.

He complained, too, that he had to shell out $15,000 for wrecker fees and pay the TA $12,000 in storage fees – $6,000 for the first day and $1,200 for each of the next five days.

But Brown’s expenses pale when compared to public transport operators based in Portmore and St Thomas, according to Newman.

“When your vehicle is seized in Portmore and taken to Water Lane in downtown [Kingston] for storage, it can cost you up to $40,000 for wrecker fee from Portmore and up to $45,000 for wrecker fee from Yallahs [in St Thomas],” the TODSS president told The Sunday Gleaner last Friday.

Further, he said public transport operators are typically fined between $20,000 and $25,000 for operating contrary to their licence.

“Part of the reason why the pounds are so filled now is … because people can’t find $100,000, $200,000 or $300,000 to get back their vehicles. Our lifeblood is being sucked out,” Newman lamented.

*Name changed.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com

Breaking it down

Route taxi

A route taxi may carry passengers paying separate fares along a designated route and can stop to pick up or let off passengers along the route. Route taxis must have 10 or fewer seats.

Hackney carriage

A hackney carriage is a vehicle used for carrying passengers for hire or reward and which stands or plies for hire on thoroughfares or places frequented by the public. The vehicle should carry no more than four passengers who should be travelling together. Owners of taxis, whilst operating a taxi service, are not permitted to use bus stops or terminals as these are designated for the use of stage and express carriages only.

Rural stage carriage

A rural stage carriage is a vehicle used for carrying passengers for hire or reward, at separate fares for each passenger, and which travels stage by stage along a designated route by stopping to pick up or set down passengers at designated stops along the route. The vehicle must have a seating accommodation for no fewer than 11 passengers. The law also requires that all stage carriages must exhibit at the front and rear of the vehicle, the origin and destination of the route for which it is licensed.

Express carriage

An express carriage is a vehicle used for carrying passengers for hire or reward at separate fares for each passenger and for a journey from one or more points specified in advance to one or more destinations. The vehicles must have a seating accommodation for no fewer than 11 passengers. All express carriage must exhibit at the front and rear the origin and destination of the journey for which it is licensed.