As the government drives forward with plans for a single national bus company, bus operators are hitting the brakes, demanding answers to some tough questions. Chief among them: what’s the backup plan if this grand vision fails? Association President Thomas Shaw says the numbers just don’t add up. Operators currently charge commuters sixteen cents per mile, but he argues the government would need to double that rate to keep a nationalized system running. And now, the association is calling for more than just dialogue, they want the investors behind this plan to come to the table and face the people who know the roads best.
Thomas Shaw, President, BBOA
“We are only hearing about the buying out and who will pay who, but the investors and lending institution, none of them have presented themselves to these consultations and if social security will be a main factor playing a main role in this, because what the operators are saying they listened to the budget and there is nothing put aside for the bus industry. So if there es nothing put aside, operators want to know where the funds will come from and who will in case this thing and at the end of the day they are afraid that this thing does not work and if it falls through what will happen to their investment that they have worked for all these years. One of their concern was that they are finding these firms that will do the appraisals, value these buses, and let us say that an operator has only one bus and they value his bus at thirty-thousand he puts that back into shares, he wants to know how will I survive because operators collect on a daily basis to feed their families pay their light water. At the lowest point you are looking at, some companies you are looking at a million dollars, or over a million dollars if you are talking about James or Westline. They are in a better position because they will have better dividends. Som of them have thirty runs. But we are not only catering to the big operators, there is the small operators as well.”
