AOPT chairman Roy Raphael (centre), AOPT Communications and Marketing Officer Mark Haynes (third left) AOPT Complaints Officer Craig Banfield share a word with officials from the COVID 19 Unit (from right) John Bushell, Erskine Springer (second right) and Brian Lord (extreme left).
YET another public service vehicle (PSV) has been robbed by a masked assailant, bringing the total to nine during the COVID period.
The Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) made the revelation yesterday, noting that while protocols are in place mandating commuters to keep their masks on while on public transportation, robbers are using this as an opportunity to hide their faces while they commit the crimes.
Saying that the most recent incident is still under investigation, officials would only reveal that it took place in Applewaite’s St. George.
Yesterday at the Constitution River Terminal, members of the AOPT executive gave the media an update on some of the challenges facing PSV owners, particularly as it relates to protocols compliance, specifically the wearing of masks by drivers, conductors and commuters.
AOPT Complaints Officer Craig Banfield, along with PRO Mark A Haynes, revealed that PSV operators are afraid of this crime situation.
According to Craig, “We as an organisation have taken this very seriously because the protocols are important on one hand, and are also being detrimental on the other hand... We are taking this very seriously. We have already come out in public and have mentioned as an association that we would prefer if commuters, upon approaching or getting on a PSV, would remove their mask like they do in banks for a couple seconds.
“So that the operator, either the driver or the conductor, are able to identify the person in the event that anything should persist going forward. We will continue to make this cry and we are also instrumental in trying to get cameras onto the PSVs as a way and means of being able to identify or at least be able to get clips of what transpired on the vans.
“We are very concerned. It is also causing persons operating PSVs to finish work at an earlier time frame. They prefer to come off the road at 6-7 pm versus continuing to 9- 0 pm due to the fact that there are these robberies that are occurring since COVID-19. This is also causing strife and making PSVs lose money in these troubling times and so we as an organisation are going to be once again confronting and getting in touch with the relevant authorities to make sure that we can get some resolution to how we can go about resolving this issue.”
AOPT Chairman Roy Raphael stated: “We want to encourage the members of the public to be vigilant and encourage our members to be vigilant. It is scary for us as operators after 6 pm to have two or three persons on the bus with their face covered and set aside to rob us.
“If this trend continues we will have to make a decision in terms of the time in which we will have to operate our buses. As you know the school will start back from next week. We would like to encourage persons to actually work with us and not to rob us,” he said. (JH)