By Petulia Clarke, Staff ReporterTHE JAMAICA Urban Transit Co. (JUTC), is reporting tremendous commuter support of its three-month-old Smart Card fare-payment system, despite a few glitches.
Errol Lee, the JUTC's information manager, said yesterday, that despite reports of infrequent useage, passengers were using the Smart Card to a substantial degree, and greater acceptability was expected after the JUTC completes implementation of 80 more card outlets throughout the Kingston Metropolitan Transport region by the end of April.
The Smart Card, designed to minimise cash transactions on buses, speed the entry of passengers, improve accountability and revenue collection and reduce the temptation to hold up the buses, was introduced in December after a year of perfecting the $200-million system. All 620 buses in the JUTC's fleet are Smart Card-ready.
Mr. Lee said the company is assessing the system to guage its effectiveness. Also, it is working to stamp out the one to two per cent rejection of the cards by some machines a situation the manufacturers had warned, could occur.
"The assessment will iron out any problems; we want to make sure that there are no more glitches that will change the positive commuter response," Mr. Lee said. The deadline for complete phase out of the cash system is to come after more outlets are available for card purchase. Then, all buses will join the fleet of luxury buses the JUTC now operates on Smart Cards alone.
Mr. Lee said the company was still fine-tuning its operations after January's staff cut (of 280 employees) phase one of restructuring recommendations made by a team of Swedish transport experts called in to audit the company last year.
"There's no telling the next step yet, but there's an on-going rationalisation. We had the laying off, now we're making sure that people are properly placed; we're still tightening up," Mr. Lee said.
Suggestions made by the experts who were called in to assess the company's operations after an audit done by KPMG-Peat Marwick deemed it "technically insolvent", included January's staff cut as well as a 90 per cent hike in bus fares. Recommended also was that priority be given to the cashless fare collection system to stem leakage and encourage frequent travellers; revised scheduling and revised costs for services including security. The cost-cutting measures are designed to save the four-year-old state-owned bus company $700 million over the next year, a change from reported daily losses of about $3.6 million and a negative worth as at February 2002 of $1.13 billion.
JUTC management has said that the restructuring was being implemented in phases across the board and that its corporate level had been reduced from 121 to 81 in the process, including the elimination of one vice presidency.
