Commuters Being Overcharged

Merdina Callum
Acting Corporate Communication Manager 

Press Release From The Transport Authority

Kingston- Jamaica, January 20, 2022 

The Transport Authority is warning public passenger vehicle (PPV) operators that they should immediately desist from the practice of overcharging commuters’ fares for use of public transportation across the island. 

Since the beginning of 2022, the Authority has received several complaints from the commuting public that unscrupulous persons have produced and are issuing notices of increased fares in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR). The Authority categorically denies that any fare increase has been granted for public passenger vehicle operators since the start of the year. For those operators that are insisting commuters pay more than the approved fares, this practice is illegal and in violation of the rights of the commuters. Accordingly, the Transport Authority operations teams will be monitoring this situation closely and operators found to be “unlawfully deceiving passengers as to the fare for a journey” will be prosecuted under regulation 129 (d) of the Road Traffic Regulations. 

In the meantime, the commuting public is reminded that one of the dangers of using unlicensed public passenger vehicles and hackney carriages being operated as route taxis is that these operators often charge exorbitant/unapproved fares. The Authority is therefore urging the commuting public to use licenced public transport vehicles which display red public passenger vehicle plates and the light blue Transport Authority sticker on the windshield with expiration dates of 2022 and onwards. 

It should also be noted that the Transport Authority does not have any approved “shared service” for Hackney Carriages.

Commuters may report incidents of overcharging through the Authority’s toll free line at 888-991-5687 and WhatsApp images or videos to 876-551-8196, providing the licence plate numbers and the routes for the vehicles.

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