Riding on the JUTC Buses - My Experience Narrated

The Jamaica Urban Transit Corporation (JUTC) has once again

made the headlines and top stories on the Jamaica landscape

particularly after the senseless assassination of its chairman,

Mr. Douglas Chambers on Friday, June 27, 2008. I had promised to write about my experience travelling on public transportation in

Jamaica in my last blog, and my concern then was that it is highly unlikely for the JUTC to ever become a profit-making company for a number of reasons. My reasons are totally different to those already identified by the present government of Jamaica (GOJ), which may have prompted them to seek Mr. Douglas Chambers' services.

A lot of people may disagree with me, but I dare say that in my opinion, the JUTC tries its best to run an efficient transportation system. I spent about ten days travelling on the JUTC (a.k.a. Chi Chi) buses including JUTC express buses after a motorcar accident, which required my car to be in the body shop for a while. I also travelled on 'robot' taxis, chartered taxis, 'robot' buses and the Ezroy Millwood NTCS luxury, air-conditioned buses. Of all the above means of transportation, I was especially impressed with the JUTC buses. I shall confine my writing here to just the JUTC buses, and reserve my discussion of other means of transport in another blog. In general, I found the JUTC bus drivers civil and polite. Only on one occasion did I experience an impolite driver who scolded me for attempting to enter the bus from the front instead of the rear of the bus. Now, I have taken a numberof the JUTC buses and I am yet to decipher which ones you enter from the front of the bus to which ones you enter from the rear.

The Bus Interior:

The buses interior are fairly well kept, except for the littering of everywhere by High School kids (aka schoolers), who suck their bag juices and blatantly dispose of the plastic bag either through the bus windows or on the floor of the buses. There aren't many visible defacing of the interior, possibly because of vigilance by the bus operators or because graffiti isn't exactly part of Jamaica's culture. No litter bins for used tickets are visible anywhere in any of the buses that I took. Perhaps the management of the JUTC needs to look into this as a measure of curtailing the 'litterbugs' (a.k.a. schoolers) riding on these buses. Each bus clearly had a 'No Eating or Drinking’ sign on it, yet eating and drinking are regular, very regular. Indeed, I actually observed on one occasion a 'sky juice' /bag juice vendor enter the bus to sell his product items to schoolers. This contributed to unruly behaviour by many boys and girls, bouncing anything or any person in their path to get to 'juicey man' - all in the presence of a bus conductor!

I actually lost my bracelet watch as a standing passenger during this event, and almost regret ever getting on the bus with my old bones with these juveniles. The bunch of bananas, which I had purchased at the Sovereign super market just before my journey was reduced to pulp in their skins by the time we reached Naggo's Head in St. Catherine. I had to combine this banana puree with mangoes and guava in an impromptu juice later on, although I had purchased the fruit for snacking purposes.

My faith in Jamaica was reinforced when we got to Naggo's Head depot and the conductor returned the lost watch to me. I actually glimpsed my watch as she was locking up her Till. After telling her that my watch had fell from my wrist in the packed bus, the conductor asked me for its colour and description, which I was able to provide. She opened back her till and told me that a passenger handed it to her, having found it on the floor of the bus! How marvellous - this show of honesty by fellow Jamaicans made my day, and I remain convinced that there is hope for the JUTC if the 'bad eggs' are weeded out or redeployed for useful service elsewhere.

My opinion of the JUTC as a business entity:

Despite their best efforts, it is going to be mighty difficult to break even - even after cutting down on the number of excess staff. With the growing global oil crisis, the cost to refuel these buses must be horrendous. The load factor is barely efficient during slack times with the buses carrying as little as twenty passengers on a busy day. This translates into revenue of a mere $1000 per trip during non-peak hours at $50 per adult passenger. During peak period when the load factor moves to 100%, up to ninety percent of this increased passengers are students in uniform who only pay $15.00 per trip by law. So if a bus carries 120 passengers for instance, and 90% are scholars, JUCT's revenue for that trip would appear to be (120 x .9 x $15.00) plus (120 x .1 x $50.00) or $2220 per trip.

I leave it to readers to decide if the JUTC can break even when you factor in the cost of gasoline, maintenance, staffing, security etc.

I would like to use this paragraph to express my sympathy for the family of

Mr. Douglas Chambers, who lost his life to unknown assassinators on June 27, 2008 shortly after concluding what was said to be an amicable agreement

between the Union and the company that he represented. Mr. Chambers

lost his life serving his beloved country. Some of the positive observations

made about the JUTC above may very well have been as a result of some

of the changes taking place at the company through his efforts.

I invite readers to visit the website of the JUTC and see the transformation taking shape day by day. May his soul rest in peace.