MINIBUS drivers who ply the 4F route (Soufriere/Vieux-Fort) are making a clarion call to the relevant authorities to do something with those “pirates” who ply their routes on a daily basis.
“I am angry and frustrated with the situation. It is affecting our livelihood,” Cletus Augustin, vice-president of the 4F Minibus Drivers Association, said.
According to the disgruntled minibus driver, the pirates include a 25-seater coaster and hired minibuses (H plates) from several routes around the island.
“They ply our routes more than us. They do so every day and it is affecting us badly,” Augustin said.
Augustin said he has already informed the Ministry of Transportation, National Council on Public Transportation (NCOPT) and police officers attached to the Soufriere, Choiseul and Laborie police stations about their problems and expects them to take action to stop the practice.
According to Augustin, if something is not done to relieve them of their plight, they will have no choice but to take some form of protest action, which is the last thing they will want to do. He is now appealing to commuters to bear with them as they work towards improving their bus system.
“We have scheduled buses leaving the bus stand every 10 to 15 minutes and we are working hard to make our best system even better. We want to make our bus system the best on the island,” Augustin said.
Oh the lies!
First of all these bus drivers do not leave every 20 mins. They leave once the bus is filled. And sometimes we have to wait for over 45 mins just for one last seat to be occupied.
Secondly, these bus drivers are lazy! You can barely get a bus after 6:00 pm to get to your destination.
And then finally when a bus appears you get the “I not going by your side”, or “I going at my home” or sometimes they just come to park on thw bus stand and roam the towns with the famous “I not going down yet”.
What do you want us to do in those situations?
Really? Every 10-15 minutes? Most times that’s the length of time you have to wait just for ONE last passenger to board so the bus can be completely filled before these guys leave. You spend well over an hour sitting on these Soufriere/V-Fort buses before the drivers leave so maybe Page/Cletus can’t really tell time. Smh. To make things worse, sometimes especially in Soufriere, you’re getting on the bus and the driver tells you “I eh making short stops uh”; all the while the ‘short-stop’ bus only has 2 passengers while the one you’re getting on needs 2 passengers to leave. It is at these times that I thank God for the so called pirates because they are the ones who get you to your destination on time. These minibus drivers need to get their act together and stop complaining!!