Minister of with responsibility for transport Audley Shaw says he welcomes the tabling of the new Road Traffic Act (RTA) regulations in Parliament.

Speaking to transport owners and drivers who are members of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) at the University of Technology in Kingston last week Thursday, Shaw said it was perhaps fitting his first public engagement as transport minister be transport-related.

“It is my intention to drive this ministry in the direction it needs to go to become the flagship institution for good governance and practices,” he told the meeting.

“I have been taking the time to learn this portfolio. Having taken the ‘crash course’, I can now go in-depth in the different aspects that will no doubt contribute to the growth and prosperity of this great nation,” he said.

He stated that the business of transport is one that affects all Jamaicans at every stage in life who depend on a safe and reliable system to go about their daily lives.

“Public-passenger vehicle operators have a particularly important role in ensuring that this system remains operational and in the best interest of all road users. By virtue of being here today, you show support for integration and unity in the approach of the transport sector,” he noted.

He said that, as operators, PPVs are responsible for the county’s most precious resource, its citizens, including children and the elderly, and this responsibility must be held with the highest regard.

“Since the start of the year an alarming 38 persons have been killed in 32 fatal crashes, PPV operators and passengers accounting for three of those fatalities. That’s three too many. It has long been the saying that taximen cause crashes, but are not a part of them. We want that notion to be totally disproved and replaced with the idea that taximen are amongst the safest drivers in the country,” he said.

Turning to the Transport Authority (TA), the minister said that he has been keeping up-to-date with the work and progress of the authority, and he commended the entity for living up to its motto of “regulating with vision”.

He cited the TA for rolling out several digital training, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms and said he hoped that individuals have been taking advantage of them.

Public transportation operators can now be trained at their own leisure, using revolutionary training methodology – gamification, and at no additional cost to the operators with the Edu-Focal driver training app,” he explained.

“Furthermore, the travel pal app allows commuters to scan/type in the licence plates of any public transportation vehicle they desire to use, to determine if the vehicle is licensed by the authority and share the information of that vehicle with others. This way their family members and friends will know when they board and disembark the vehicle… and the commuter will have the option to rate the operator, place a complaint and like or commend the driver,” Shaw stated.