Caption: Women PMV operators Adela Tengui
and Judith Nori.
By MATTHEW VARI
Sunday, May 8, 2016 (PNG)
PMV operator are always associated with the menfolk, however, two such operators were present at the recent PMV industry meet with the Transport Department through the Land Transport Board on Monday in Port Moresby were the opposide.
Women operators Judith and Adela, both from the Western Highlands, were on hand to hear answers to grievances faced by PMV operators in the nation’s capital, especially delays in issuing of PMV licenses.
Mother of two, Judith Nori, who operates 7 buses along with her husband said that the meeting with the regulators as a wish come true for operators.
She said that a lot of their buses were operating illegally on white plates as their application were still being processed for months on end despites the 6 months renewal process.
“We want to know where the holdup is and with the secretary telling us why that is happening, because to get a loan the lenders always want the PMV licenses to come through before they approve our loans, but how can we do that when the licensing process is so slow and we are not given,” Mrs Nori said.
“That is the problem, so we have to appeal to the First Assistant Secretary of the Land Transport Division to issue us for a temporary license just to have our loans approved.”
“They must approve our license within a month because paying back our loans every month lenders want payments to be made. That is the problem for that meetings to occur.”
Fellow woman operator Adela Tengui runs one 25 seater bus in the city, with an additional that I run with an additional 15 seater bus in Hagan.
Tengui, a widow, said she runs her business out of necessity as a widow since November last year, however insists that she runs her business using white plates rather than registered PMV plates.
“What’s happening is the transport board is supposed to give us permit that we can run with, which took more than two to three months for that to happen,” she said.
“When that is happening we face issues with the traffic authorities that man the various road blocks in the city.”
“Every time our drivers and crews the police demand the permits which they are unable to produce and they charge them both. If they can’t pay them anything they are being grounded and it is a waste of time, like everyone are saying we are running the buses on loans.”
“We satisfy the needs of the traveling public who satisfy us paying our bills so that we can pay our loans and stuff like that.”
She said the need for licensing to be sped up was vital as to not have problems with authorities on the road.
“It is very challenging to run among all the men, but we can do this for the survival of the fittest to provide for our kids as other means of work we can’t take part in and this is what we can do best.”
However, Transport Secretary Roy Mumu told them earlier in the meet, that the delay was in relation to the constant complaints drawn from the traveling public on the conduct of drivers and crews.
“The conduct of drivers and their crews also create that delay when it comes to renewing so I guess it is a two way thing.”
“From our side as the regulator we expect you to take a role to talk to your employees, I have talk to the association to organize a meet also to talk to the drivers.”
“Under the RTA there will be training programs for all operators’ drivers and crews on the expectations we have for them to provide the public transport service,” Mumu said.
He added that on the regulators part under the Road Traffic Authority (RTA) there will be an entire division that will undertake the license renewal.
“There will no longer be a single person but an entire division to do that specifically, as we are going to make sure there is a branch specifically for it,” he concluded.
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