JUTC Needs To Take Action

The Following letter was sent to the JUTC by a listener to my programme:

  

Good day, sir. 

As a taxpayer who is employed to the Government of Jamaica, who is very near to retirement, who has been on a fixed salary for the past six years and who pays hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in taxes to my dear beloved country, I am again exercising my civic duty to write in regard to some issues that need to be addressed at the JUTC:

1. The opening of the driver’s window in the air conditioned JUTC buses. 

Each day of the week I travel on 4 JUTC buses to and from work. On Saturday 2 buses, on Sunday four buses. I am a regular user of these buses.
While I am the first to admit that there are more buses on the road, I cannot say the service has improved significantly.  Why are there so many JUTC buses running all over the KMTR with the driver’s window wide open, ear phone in their ears, their right hand outside of the buses and music blasting at the highest decibel?  Am I the only passenger who has observed this practice by these drivers?   And where is the chairman, the management, the supervisors, the employees of the JUTC, are they ALL blind?  On a daily basis dozens of buses are seen running in the KMTR being operated by out of control drivers.  What are the sanctions being brought against these drivers?  Sir, what are the functions of management?  1. To manage! Manage! Manage!!! What sanctions are being taken against these drivers? Every institution must have systems and procedures in place that staff must adhere to or else the workers will do as they like and the institution will collapse.

How do you communicate to your workers, sir?  This is an age of information, communication. Use all the available communication channels at your disposal to get your message to the staff - {meetings, bulletins, email, text message, memoranda,}. The message of the company must be clear and without ambiguity and it must include sanctions for those who breach the company’s policy.  But, is there any such policy? 

2. The leaking of the buses and the saturated beautiful padded seats. 

I have no doubt that the leaking of the buses is a direct result of the continuous opening of the windows.  The air conditioning vents are now pouring gallons of water on the passengers who have to resort to opening umbrellas inside of the buses to protect themselves.  Sometimes we step into the buses and sit only to find that we are sitting on a saturated seat from water coming from the vents.

Sir, how much does it cost the taxpayers annually to repair and maintain these multimillion dollar buses that are being allowed to be damaged by uncaring drivers?  

3. Scheduling.  

I am again appealing to the management that the scheduling of the buses be improved, in particular number 49.  The purpose is being defeated if you have to wait in Greater Portmore /HWT  for one hour on a bus, finally one bus turns up, all the passengers are forced to get on to that one bus because they do not know when another bus will come. En route to your home or work five, six buses pass with just a few passengers, half empty on the toll road.  Now, if the passengers knew that the next half an hour another bus would be coming they would not all force themselves on that one bus.

4. What amazes me in all of this is that the Premium buses have lost their status.  When that service started it was much better than the regular service so I made the sacrifice and took the premium.  The lick shot drivers have now taken over the premium service.  Last week I took one of the 320 the television was blasting at the highest decibel.  Up to this morning the driver of the 315 had his cap turned back ways, his window wide open and his right hand outside of the window.  Shameful!!  How do these drivers see themselves?  Do they see themselves as important human beings offering a very vital service to their nation?  I doubt it.

I am suggesting that systems be put in place immediately to curb some of these way ward practices by some of these drivers.

1.    that there be a month of grace for retraining, re socializing, communication and implementation. 

2.    first breach committed by a driver for loud music, opening of window, et cetera, a warning letter,

3.    second breach, deduction of one day’s pay,

4.    third breach deduction of two days’ pay,

5.    fourth breach, suspension without pay for one week.

6.    After three months an assessment be done with feedback from the public.  You would be amazed to see the marked improvement in these drivers’ attitude.  

There are indeed some good drivers employed to the JUTC, 17Ax, 20AX, and a number of the women.  The management just cannot allow this billion dollar company to be destroyed.     

I am inviting you to stand any day of the week  at Jamaica National in HWT across from the Transport Centre,  at the stop light at the top of Hagley Park Road, Portmore Mall and Downtown Kingston and count the number of air condition buses with the driver’s window open and their hands outside of the buses, earphones in ears and music blasting.  This needs to stop.

Management, please start managing.  In the days when there was no JUTC buses and we travelled by the Executive buses from Greater Portmore to New Kingston I have never seen one of those executive buses with their windows open.   Many of those buses are nearly 20 years old and they are still on the route.

Why is it that we have to destroy everything we call ‘GoJ property?   Mr Campbell, Mr Finnikin, it takes much more than rolling out of buses to run a bus company.  It takes policies, rules, guidelines, systems, structures, protocol, processes, and most of all communication.   Over to you, all.

YB