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Sunday, February 8, 2015

Transport owners, operators to hold counselling session, prayers

Sunday, February 08, 2015 | 4:41 AM

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Association of Transport Owners and Operators, (JATOO), and the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services, (TODSS) will be holding counselling session and prayers on Monday February 9th at 10 am at the North Odeon Ave transportation Layby in St Andrew.

This session is directed at operators in that area who are mourning the sudden and unfortunate death of one of their colleagues.

On Tuesday February 3rd, a bus driver collapsed while driving his bus on Maxfield Ave in Kingston. The conductor quickly took control and sought help at a nearby medical facility on Molynes Road. The driver was pronounced dead upon arrival at the facility.

A news release from JATOO stated: “The present stress level under which public passenger operators work on a daily basis is at an unbearable level and need the human and divine intervention. This session will be conducted by the Reverend Al Miller, Reverend Lloyd Maxwell along with other pastors who are also transport operators. An invitation has been extended to the Transport Authority and the Police Traffic Department for seeking their participation. This will be the first in an ongoing effort to bring counselling to members of the transport sector their families, and friends who experience unfortunate circumstances.

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Transport owners, operators to hold counselling session, prayers

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Bus operators decide next move in latest battle with JUTC

Transport operators will today determine their response to what they claim is the Jamaica Urban Transit Company’s (JUTC) decision to remove coaster bus operators from its sub-franchise system come March 2015.

President of the Jamaica Association of Transport Operators and Owners (JATOO), Edgerton Newman, says operators were told of the JUTC’s decision at a meeting with the company last Thursday.

But he says the transport operators’ response to the JUTC’s move will be dependent on the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case filed by operators against the Government. The judgement is to be handed down today at 2 p.m.

Filed suits

The Rural Transit Company Limited had filed suits against the Transport Authority, the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), the Office of Utilities Regulations, the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General.

The operators claimed, among other things, that the Transport Authority acted illegally when it barred rural operators from picking up passengers in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR). They are also challenging the decision of the JUTC to commandeer a section of the Mandela Highway for exclusive use by its buses.

In addition, they are contesting JUTC’s decision to discontinue the sub-franchise licences of some operators in reclaiming routes in the KMTR.

Newman says operators will be holding a meeting at the Caenwood Centre in Kingston today to discuss the JUTC’s decision that was announced on Thursday. He says JATOO will earnestly fight the decision, which will affect some 10 per cent of its membership.

According to Newman, operators who were granted sub-franchise licences were told that they would receive contracts for up to four years.

He says JATOO will be seeking the intervention of the Minister of Transport and Works Dr Omar Davies and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

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Bus operators decide next move in latest battle with JUTC

Friday, September 6, 2013

Missing bus operator"s family still in shock after a year

OCHO RIOS, St Ann — It has been a rough year for Sandra Cousins and her family, who are still trying to deal with the sudden disappearance of her common-law husband Leroy Brown, aged 57.

Brown’s bus was reportedly found at a gas station in Ocho Rios last year August after he was reported missing. He has not been seen since.August 13 marked one year since anyone heard from, or saw the JUTA tour bus operator. With nothing after one year, Cousins said that she is frustrated and is hurting especially for her seven-year-old son who was close to his father.“My baby hurting,” an emotional Cousins told the Jamaica Observer.“Him say, ‘Mi wish me did dead or mi prefer mi two foot did cut off and mi know weh daddy de’,” said the traumatised mother, who has had several health challenges since Brown’s disappearance.“My baby move from 90 per cent to zero in his class,” she emphasised about the youth’s performance in school.“Him keep wondering if dem cut up him daddy or if John Crow eat him,” she added.She now has to be taking him for counselling sessions regularly, and even that seems not to be helping.“I watch him just shut down. I carry him for counselling and leave him in the room and they have to call me to come comfort him,” she said.The mother, who has also been faced with great financial strain since Brown’s disappearance, said that watching her son’s behaviour was devastating.“If him hear vehicle at nights him open the window a look if dem let go him daddy,” she stated.Cousins said that she has tried to be strong for her children, but the tears still flow when they are asleep at nights.“Mi can’t cry no more in front of him so a go inna the bathroom at 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning,” a teary-eyed Cousins stated.The mother of three of Brown’s five children said that all she needs to know is what happened to the man who was always caring for and supporting his family.“Mi need answers,” she said.Cousins said that she is not pleased with the way that the police investigations are going.“Nobody no call mi fi say dem hear anything or if dem still a investigate,” she said.The mother said that she has had to be calling to find out what was happening and she is constantly told the investigator in the matter has changed.“Mi just need to know the truth,” she said. “If a woman him gone wid, mi can deal wid it. If him dead mi can deal wid it. Mi want to know mi can pick two leaves go put on his grave,” she added.Cousins said that she needs closure. She explained that she cannot bring herself to have a funeral for him as she needs evidence that he is dead.“Mi can’t do it,” she said, shaking her head.“If mi know which part Leroy bone dem deh, mi tek dem up and walk and beg and bury him,” she stated.Following Brown’s disappearance, Cousins said that she has walked miles, day and night, searching in bushes, trying to find him.She showed several scars on her skin as evidence that she has travelled for miles through thickets and thorns to find the man she knew for over 20 years.While she seeks closure, Cousins believes there is much more that law enforcers could do to try and locate Brown.She said that when he was first reported missing, the matter was not dealt with expeditiously, as when his bus was found, she was told to get a locksmith and take the bus home.It was after further evidence was found that the bus was turned into a crime scene, she said.But much more disheartening to her, Cousins said, is the fact that the battery in the bus was stolen while it was parked at the police station.“All I got was ‘we are sorry’,” she said.She said that the insurance and other papers for the bus were taken from her by the police, but she has not got them back and although she has the bus in her possession, she is not able to do anything with it to ease the financial strain that she faces.However, her major concern, she said, is the way the investigations have been going. She believes that the police have disregarded vital evidence and are not giving the case much attention.“I have asked for an appointment with the commissioner, but all they do is take my name and number and promised to get back to me,” she stated.“There are days when I go to work and can’t function. There is not one police station in Jamaica where mi no call. Mi tek it upon miself to call Digicel (to find out if they could help to find Brown by tracing his phone and looking at call history), but dem say mi can’t do it,” Cousins said.The depressed woman said that she has tried all means possible to find out what has happened to Brown, who, on the day of his disappearance asked that she withdraw money from two accounts and give to a man whom he would send to see her.That was the last time she heard from him.Cousins wants the police to do more in their investigations and to inform her about what is happening.“It is not like him to just disappear. A nuh somebody who nuh communicate,” Cousins said, emphasising how close he was to his family.“Mi feel angry, frustrated. Sometimes mi feel useless and mi know mi try,” she stated.LEROY BROWN … gone without a trace

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Missing bus operator"s family still in shock after a year

Friday, July 12, 2013

We have no agreement for a flat tax – Taxi operators

Transport operators agree to flat tax

Friday, June 28, 2013

Sandals continues to expand while other operators falter

THE financial and economic downturn of 2008 heralded a precipitous decline for many hotel operators in the Caribbean.

The once revered SuperClubs has dramatically retreated from its home market, Jamaica; in the Bahamas, Atlantis continues to experience difficulties and has had to cut its room rates to as low as US$70; the Almond hotel in Barbados has been sold; the Four Seasons in Exuma sold out to Sandals; the Ritz Carlton in Jamaica was forced to sell out after faltering performances over recent years; in the highest-value real estate auction ever held in the Cayman Islands, the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman hotel property was sold to an American private equity company for around US$180 million.Boldness in bad timesOver the last five years, 2008 to 2013, Sandals has maintained a relentless expansion exercise during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1920s. It has also upgraded all its properties, adding the Balmoral wing to the Royal Bahamian in the Bahamas.During the said period, Sandals Whitehouse became fully operational; the Four Seasons in Exuma was acquired, the Veranda hotel in Turks& Caicos was bought for around US$100 million and the LaSource hotel in Grenada was purchased for an undisclosed sum.All this underscores the Sandals Group’s unwavering faith in Caribbean tourism. In all the Caribbean countries it operates in, tourism is a leading economic driver and the main earner of foreign exchange.The hotel group led by Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart may well be seeing something that many Caribbean governments may do well to take note of — a glorious future for Caribbean tourism.Encouraging numbersCaribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) figures for 2012 and forecasts for 2013 bears this out.According to Beverly Nicholson-Doty, chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and US Virgin Islands Tourism Commissioner, Caribbean destinations are on pace for a strong 2013 following a 2012 season that saw a 5.4 per cent region-wide increase in tourists.In a wide-ranging statement issued on February 13, Nicholson-Doty said Caribbean tourism growth “outpaced the rest of the world” in 2012, which saw 25 million visitors that year. She further expects international visitor traffic to the Caribbean to grow by “another four to five per cent” in 2013.Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean from the US increased 4.1 per cent in 2012 compared with 2011, “holding steady with the pre-recession levels of five years earlier,” said Nicholson-Doty. US arrivals increased in all of the reporting Caribbean countries, she added.In addition, Caribbean hotels are generating stronger results, with regional properties reporting improvement in four key performance indicators for the second consecutive year.“The overall occupancy for the Caribbean increased by 7.1 per cent; average daily rate went up 4.8 per cent and total room revenues by 8.9 per cent,” said Nicholson-Doty. Revenue per available room also rose by 12.4 pe rcent in 2012. “Should these trends continue, it certainly augurs well for 2013,” she added.Canada is the fastest-growing Caribbean travel market, according to Nicholson-Doty, posting a 5.9 per cent arrivals increase in 2012, marking the country’s fifth straight year of growth. In an “encouraging sign” visitor spending in CTO-member countries totalled US$27.5 billion in 2012, a 3.6 percent increase over 2011 and the third consecutive year of growth.“This marks a return of aggregate spending by visitors to the pre-recession level,” Nicholson-Doty said.Allowing Caribbean tourism to prosperDespite this rosy forecast, many Caribbean governments continue to impose even more taxes on tourism operators as their economies contract, thus killing the goose that lays the golden egg.Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, the former tourism minister of The Bahamas and also former head of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), recently produced an important paper on Caribbean tourism in which he pointed out the following: “Hotel occupancies across the region average 60 per cent annually and tourism represents some 15 per cent of regional GDP. In some Caribbean countries, the tourism contribution to GDP is as high as 80 per cent. It does not take much arithmetic to see that if occupancies could be advanced to 90 per cent, the tourism contribution could be increased by some 50 per cent.”ConundrumIt is a conundrum that whilst tourism continues to be a potent economic force in the Caribbean and is projected to continue to be so, many operators are failing.This is a testament to the Sandals brand and its operational abilities. It has placed much stock in marketing and exceeding the visitor’s expectations – a mantra that has served it well since 1981.The test of timeThe test of time has really brought its rewards and St Lucia stands as a prime example.When Sandals acquired the Hyatt Regency over twenty years ago, the group met with a negative backlash that almost saw it being ignominiously sent away.It had to see its way through a political maelstrom and much resentment from many local business leaders who stood firm in their opposition to Sandals.After twenty years, Sandals has played a major role in transforming St. Lucia’s visitor profile, attracting more visitors from the United States and marketing it as a top destination – a jewel in the Caribbean’s crown.The current Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony can now allow himself a rueful smile, knowing that his fateful decision to stand firm behind Sandals and support its acquisition of the Hyatt Regency helped to foster growth of the country’s tourism product, providing much needed foreign exchange and helping to make it one of the best performing economies in the Caribbean over that twenty-year period.The endurance of Sandals and its inexorable expansion cannot be put down to fortuity.In St Lucia a number of projects over that period have got no further than ambitious renderings – dreams that failed to become a lasting reality.Also many hotel operators have had to sell their assets and face the ogre that is receivership, including the once reputable Smuggler’s Cove. It truly is a game called survival of the fittest; being able to stand tall with the big dogs and make them take notice.In 2013, over 20 years later, Dr Kenny Anthony who is once again the Prime Minister has to make a decision that will see Sandals once again enhance his country’s tourism product.Having repaid its faith in St Lucia , Sandals now is looking to add additional 200 rooms and introduce over-the-water suites akin to those found in such exotic locations such as Bali. Here, some 700 jobs will be created and this project will cost over US$100 million, a fillip for the economy.This is the next step in the evolution of Caribbean tourism and one that can be boldly taken by a far-sighted political leader.The author Richard Bach once said: ” Listen to what you know instead of what you fear.”More than twenty years later, Dr Kenny Anthony well knows what Sandals can deliver and how it has endured to become the leading Caribbean resort operator in the world.

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