Police plan to press ahead with crackdown on colourful wraps

Mar 20, 2018 News

… plan countrywide meeting with operators

A police officer interacts with the driver of a wrapped minibus during a community outreach along the East Bank of Demerara.

Police officers are expected to engage operators of public minibuses in the coming weeks over the removal of colourful wraps from their vehicles.

This course of action was taken after several buses bearing the colourful wraps and plying routes in ‘A’ Division were hauled into the Brickdam Police Station. This prompted several of the operators to protest at Square of the Revolution.

Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner, Leslie James, told Kaieteur News that it must be noted that the wrapping is a breach because it is contrary to the road service licence.

“It is contrary to what is stated on their registration so we don’t have to compromise with them, as I have said. The meeting that we proposed is only to include the other buses in other divisions in the country so that when the decision is made it can concern all the other vehicles in the country and not just ‘A’ Division,” James stated.

He pointed out that officers met with the operators following the protest last Thursday and recommended the meeting with the Chief Traffic Officer, a meeting that will go beyond just the buses in his division.

“A Division is one division among other divisions and if we were to engage in such an exercise in a singular fashion and it is not being done in other divisions, in my view, I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. It should be taken from a national perspective,” James noted.

He noted that he cannot represent other divisions, but ‘A’ Division has tempered the exercise of having the wraps removed until the national meeting.

James explained that the registration for all motor vehicles, inclusive of minibuses state the colour that the particular vehicle is permitted to carry at anytime.

“What we are finding is that a vehicle will have red and white and with this wrapping it will have white, red and several other colours and right away that’s a breach,” James noted.