More options to fix JUTC than fare increases
Dear Editor,
As a member of the commuting public, I am very glad to have heard that Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has bent the corner and is on the road to greater viability.
However, like most members of the commuting public I am very much against the idea of increased bus fares, and equally I am resolutely against the reduction of spaces available to schoolchildren and the aged.
It is my view that JUTC needs to take a wider view of its operations and take a baker’s approach to its business. Bakers, in general, seek to spread their operating costs and sources of revenue by producing substitutes in production, for example biscuits, breads, bullas, and buns are produced using indentical fixed capital formation and nearly identical variable flows.
The JUTC, for example, owns a training facility in Lake’s Pen, Portmore. Couldn’t this facility be used to offer paid training for drivers who have a desire of working in Canada and elsewhere? The JUTC operates a bus park in Spanish Town, couldn’t revenue be earned from the rental of vending booths built in the same style of the Azan booths in May Pen? Could revenue be earned from the rental of this facility for dances and stage shows? Is it possible for the JUTC Maintenance Department to earn revenue from repairing privately operated trucks, large buses, fork lifts, back hoes etc? The JUTC, by its operation, serves a captive audience who, in the main, is forced to listen and/or watch whatever is offered on the bus. Isn’t it possible for the JUTC to operate its own media platform and earn an income from advertisement?
It is my view that it would be very unfortunate and possibly politically unwise for the JUTC to, in the near future, seek to shore up its revenues by introducing another bout of fare increases and further curtailing services to the commuting public . It would be far more acceptable if the company seeks to increase its revenue flows by other means, even if it means employing the director of National Bakery as a consultant.
Basil Fletcher
BasilAksumite@hotmail.com
