Recently the Prime Minister announced new measures to put an end to the so called “syndicate” system in the transport sector. This means, mainly, actions against monopolies made by unions who are only interested to maximize their profits and take undue advantage from the commuters everywhere in the country not only the Valley.
In most of the cases, we do not need stronger or better regulations concerning the sector but what we need is the political will to implement those rules already in place in a consistent, regular and long term fashion rather than through short terms campaigns carried out occasionally by the traffic police.
If you think well, how many times, have you heard our Prime Ministers announcing actions to regulate the sector but then what is the real follow up?
For example recently, after new data was released about the high number of road casualties, the traffic police had announced a campaign to educate the drivers and the pedestrians, an effort that also included the mobilization of students as traffic volunteers.
What happened to that campaign? How long will it last? Is there any plan to incorporate this campaign into the long term strategy of the police? Was the campaign discussed in the radio and tv? If this were the case, was it done in a massive way? What was the impact of using students as traffic volunteers? Once their service time is over, will they try to disseminate their learning among their peers? Will we see any trickledown effect from their volunteering?
What about going to the schools, from primary to bachelor level and start a conversation with the students about traffic’s rules and behaviors? What about involving the national newspapers in order to launch a series of public service announcements that can really change people’s approach to driving, walking in the streets and use of the public transportation?
In short while we need the “stick” to implement the rules and break the syndicates ruling the transportation sector, we also need to create a big buzz about road safety.
Now if let me reflect loudly about some concerns related to the public transportations, the following ones come to my mind: micros or buses overcrowded, very young drivers at the wheels who love speeding, young kids employed to collect the fees and unclear rules about the cost of travelling, especially now that the cost of the oil is down but the minimum amount charged is still 15 NRS.
All the above mentioned issues are interrelated.
For example, let’s look at first one, the number of passengers allowed to be transported by micros: it is true that sometimes the demand is so high that there is no other option than jumping on the micro together with other twenty plus persons.
If you think for a moment, you would agree that this particular problem is just a facet of a dysfunctional system now in place.
This particular issue is linked with the effective capacity of the “supply” that means the existing public transportation vehicles are not able to meet the existing demand.
The fact is that current owners of micros work in a real anarchy where there is no structured real timetable so that they can do whatever they want. It is a kind of “closed” (the owners of micros are de facto working in an oligopoly) but also wild competition with no rules enforced.
Look at the issue of the cost of a travel: how come that the minimum fee has not come down while the cost of refueling is now considerably cheaper than before? While the cost of oil was getting higher, immediately the unions were asking for an upward adjustment of the minimum travel price but now that the adjustment should be downward, no one pays any attention to the issue.
Or wait a minute, I believe, if I am not wrong that actually the prices went down to 13 NRS but no one is aware of it and certainly the owners of micros are not interested to let passengers know about it.
What about the young kids driving recklessly? Is there a centralized register containing the data of all the micro drivers? How to take actions against those young guys who think to be in Formula 1 race?
About the persistent problem of child labor in the sector: I understand that these children in charge of collecting the fees and their families are in desperate need of an income but there might be a way to at least guarantee them with a flexible form of education?
Being a pragmatic rather than an idealist, I would suggest as minimum action, the implementation of standard working shifts that will allow these children also the time for study.
The government is betting on the “BIG GREEN BUSES” run by Sajha Yatayat that soon will introduce thirty new buses. This is real good news but hardly a real game changer that will revolutionize the sector but at least something.
Probably a real revolution will only come with small incremental “wins” that can slowly improve the quality of the service being offered.
The authorities should change this landscape by rigorously putting in practices the existing rules and if this measure were not enough, then new regulations can be put in place.
Facilitating or forcing a more effective coordination among the micros would probably help to offer a better service to the costumers.
Meanwhile the authorities should invite the micro owners and their unions to come up with a Costumers’ Charter that expresses a new commitment to serve the clients not only by following and implementing the rules but also by adhering to the highest ethical standards of what should become a well regulated market.
One of the cornerstones of this Charter could be a clear and easy identification of the micros ‘drivers (think of a centrally issued badge for each of them) and a serial number for each privately owned public vehicle. What about a free toll number that clients can use to lodge complains about the service?
All these are not impossible ideas but small doable steps to control and regulate the “wild west” called public transportation in Nepal.
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