Fiji’s Bus Operator Association is calling for the establishment of a National Transport Commission with its members, including the stakeholders in the industry as active permanent members to establish and manage a National Public Transport Plan.

This has been highlighted by the association President Richard Lal, who is urging the Minister for Transportation to consider establishing a transport commission.

Lal said he was compelled to make the call because authorities ‘think they can fix’ problems within Fiji’s transport system without proper consultations with the FBOA.

“FBOA which is made of companies that have provided more than 70years of public transport service to our people successfully completing more than 701.8 million trips per tap since e-ticketing was introduced on Oct 1, 2017. As a group we have the benefit of generations of practical public transport service experience that I would have thought authorities would want to use in their decision making to secure the very best outcomes for our people.”

He adds that members of the association provide on average 1.7 million trips per tap every week, using over 1500 buses and servicing 1088 bus routes everyday throughout Fiji.

“Which means that possibly 70 per cent of the roads our buses operate on are unsealed whihc would explain to an observan official why our mnembers face high maintenance costs which is not helped by the current fare level $0.17c per km, which represents an increase of just $0.06c per km over an eight year period approved by authorities.”

FBOA President Lal further said the association has its views and has suggested solutions to the ongoing issues of Mini Bus permits, the PSV freeze, the right to object and variations on RRs. However, they are yet to be invited for a discussion with Government on issues affecting Fiji’s public transport system.

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