Tanzania: Transport Regulator Scrambles to Avert Looming Bus Strike
Dar es Salaam — The Land Transport Regulatory Authority (Latra) is in talks with bus owners in an effort to quell an industrial action that’s planned to start later this week.
Bus owners said on Saturday that they would suspend passenger transport services if the issue of using Point of Sales (PoS) machines in collection of fares as advanced by Latra is not addressed.
PoS machines require the owner to deposit a certain amount of money in a SIM card or financial services agent depending on the bus’ passenger estimates. For example, if a bus carries 50 passengers at a fare of Sh30,000 each, then the owner is required to deposit Sh1.5 million.
However, at different times, some owners have complained about the system, saying it is not friendly to the use of these buses – and that it has serious shortcomings which cause them to incur losses.
As a result, on Saturday (March 6, 2021), the Tanzania Bus Owners Association (Taboa) convened an emergency meeting to discuss the system – and a large percentage of the members decided that they will park their buses this week if the issue is not addressed.
But Latra director general Gilliard Ngewe told The Citizen yesterday that the two parties were already working on some of raised issues, exuding confidence that the issues would be resolved.
by Citizen.
