Just as it happened before with the opening of bypass roads and highways in other sections of the island, the North/South link of Highway 2000 has taken a toll on the earnings of vendors and businesses on the old route between Bog Walk Gorge to Ocho Rios.

Cassandra Slew is one of the many fruit vendors who pack mangoes and naseberries in small plastic bowls and offer them for sale to motorists in the vicinity of Flat Bridge in the Bog Walk Gorge. She said that since the opening of the highway in March she has seen a decrease in sales.

“I use to sell six to eight dishes of mango daily. Yesterday I sold four dishes,” she told the Jamaica Observer, adding that on average she would sell five bowls of naseberries daily.

“A from 8:30 am mi deh out here. Normally I would sell one to two dishes already,” Slew said, pointing out that at 10:00 am when she spoke to the Observer she was yet to make a sale.

She said that in order for her to make ends meet she has been raring livestock part-time.

However, she said that as a result of the high toll rates she has been seeing some motorists resorting to the old road. But those are mostly Jamaicans, as tourists, who would normally buy the fruits, are opting to use the highway.

Another fruit vendor, Sharon Augustas, shared a similar experience.

“Wi a suffer; di mango dem a tun duppy pon wi; look pon dem,” Augustas said. “Since the highway open mi nuh sell three dish a day.”

The mother of three said that in order for her to continue providing for her children she has to relocate.

“Wi want wi pickney dem to become successful. If wi did have it, we wouldn’t deh yah so. If mi get $7,000 mi carry dem (fruits) go Sav-la-Mar,” Augustas added.

Pauline Ellis, a resident and bar owner in Kent Village, St Catherine, is optimistic that the toll prices will force motorists to return to the old road. Ellis, however, said that the highway has taken a toll on her business.

“On a weekend I would make $10,000 to $12,000. When the toll was free, a $3,000 mi mek,” Ellis said in reference to the period when the highway operators allowed toll-free use of the road before it was officially opened.

“Mi will get a sale inna di night, once mi have weh dem want,” Ellis said.

Anna-Kay Evans, who has been operating a fruit stall in Bog Walk for approximately 10 years, said her business, too, has been affected by the highway.

“No good sale since the highway; things slow, the things dem a spoil pon wi. We use to make $6,000 a week profit before the highway, now a $3,000 wi a mek,” Evans said, adding that relocation is the only option she now has if she is to make a living.

Danielle Malcolm, who has been assisting her mother at her fruit stall in Bog Walk for over 20 years, told the

Observer that it was that business that financed her education. Malcolm, who graduated from Moneague Teachers’ College in St Ann in 2008 with an accounting degree, noted that even though she and her mom have been purchasing less fruits, they are still operating at a loss.

An obviously frustrated Malcolm, who said she has never held a job in Jamaica since she graduated from Moneague, argued that the highway was not designed with vendors in mind.

“There is no turn off to come and purchase, you have to go to Tredways. Nobody nah go turn back to come so far,” she said.

The proprietor of Home Essential Supermarket on Main Street in Ewarton, St Catherine, who declined to give her name, said that during the period when travel on the highway was free she lost a lot of customers who would normally stop for refreshments.

However, with toll rates now in effect, she is seeing a gradual return to normalcy.

Collete Jonhson, manager at the Petcom gas station in Moneague, St Ann, said that she has been thinking of different ways to attract more customers.

“Regardless of the highway, my business will survive,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who lives in Spanish Town, added that she uses the highway every day. “No one wants to go up Mount Rosser. I take the toll road in Angels and come off in Linstead,” she said.

Dwayne Deleon, manager of Lyming in Walkerswood, St Ann, said that he has seen a 50 per cent decrease in sales since the completion of the highway.

“When they closed it the other day for the opening ceremony, what we made here is what Lyming is capable of making,” Deleon said.

The restaurant has been in operation for approximately seven years and had been designated an official rest stop. On the day the

Observer visited only four people were seen dining in the restaurant that would normally host more than 30 customers.

“This is the worst I have seen in seven years. Usually at this time there is a dip, and it has gone below the dip. Loyal customers, however, do come,” Deleon explained, adding that as a result of the decrease in sales he was forced to cut staff.