Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 18, 2009 News
Following the clampdown on public transportation vehicles, enforced by the Police Traffic Department, on Monday last, a total of 125 minibus operators have been charged with operating their vehicles without a road service licence.
In Georgetown, and along East Bank Demerara, 35 minibus operators were charged, while along the East Coast Demerara, 47 of their counterparts suffered a similar fate.
On West Coast Demerara and along East Bank Essequibo, 31 operators were charged, and in Linden and in interior locations, 12 will face the courts.
The crackdown on public transportation vehicles without road service licences came after the police granted public transport operators an additional half month in which to get their vehicles up to code.
According to the police, the operators who were charged had not taken out road service licences for their vehicles, since their motor vehicles still had markings and drawings.
Because of this they were in breach of the law.
A police source explained that even though the police had been issuing Road Service Licences since last month, many public transportation operators were hesitant to get theirs early.
This was apparently because, if they had done so, they would have had to bring their vehicles into compliance with the new Road Service Licence.
Previously many hire-car drivers and minibus owners and operators had said that they were hesitant to remove the signage from their minibuses.
Some drivers and operators requested additional time to comply with the police direction on the matter, and were pleased when they were given until March 15 to do so.
According to reports from some of those detained, operators’ road service licences expired on Sunday last, but they were unaware of this.
Some operators attempted to get their Road Service Licences yesterday, but were unable to do so because their vehicles were not in compliance with the new road service licence.
All across the coast, commuters faced considerable difficulty in getting minibuses, as so many of them were being held in various police stations. Many commuters, realising that there was a shortage of minibuses, opted to walk, some for great distances, to get to work.
According to some operators who were waiting with their vehicles at the Cove and John Police Station, the police stopped them en route to Georgetown and made them empty their vehicles, before telling them (the operators) to proceed to the police station.
The police had indicated that as of Monday last they would be intensifying operations in enforcement of the laws in relation to the non-playing of music in public transportation vehicles while on a journey or parked on the roadway.
In addition, the police also noted that they would seek to enforce the non-use of hand-held mobile phones while driving motor vehicles, and would be clamping down on the fraudulent imitating of identification marks on motor vehicles’ number plates and certificates of registration.
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