Minibus taxi industry should be professionally managed

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These refer to:

• modal upgrading; and
  
• integrated public transport networks (IPTN's).

Although emphasis has been placed on the second pillar of the public transport strategy, there is an urgent need to also focus on the first pillar which is modal upgrading.

"It is critical to realise that modal upgrading interventions are also necessary if the current public transport service environment is to be stabilised," said Paul Browning from Transforum Business Development. He was speaking during his presentation at the Southern African Transport Conference, which was held at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria from 7-10 July.

"A large portion of the 60% passenger clientèle is either in areas where the second pillar, IPTN's, will not be developed, or where they will not reach for many years," Browning added.

Present format must change

The premise of Browning's paper is that no improvements in the standards of operation of the minibus taxi will be possible unless the present format of individual owner-operators is changed, to one where vehicles are operated in larger units with professional management.

According to Browning, there is no operational management of mini-bus taxis and modal upgrading should take account of the needs of:

• the owner-operator;
  
• the taxi-employee;
  
• the taxi-user;
  
• other road users; and
  
• the community at large.

Dorothy McCormick from the University of Nairobi agreed with Browning. McCormick also presented a paper looking at Institutional Development in public of selective compliance for Nairobi's Paratransit system.

Browning acknowledged that taxi operators may be reluctant to move from their comfort zone and therefore there needs to be a carrot and stick approach. "The carrot will be that such a structural change will pave the way to services being operated under contract to the municipality and thus offer access to the government subsidy. The stick must be that the authorities will institute a vigorous enforcement of business and labour legislation," Browning said.

McCormick reiterated that this was an important point, which they were also seeing in Nairobi. "In order to be licensed the taxi needs to belong to a company or a co-operative. Members are then required to save a portion of their take which qualifies them for loans of up to 2 or 3 times their initial investment after a period of time. This operators can then use to purchase vehicles or fix their existing fleet," McCormick said.