Passengers have been stranded in Portsmouth – Dominica’s second largest town – as bus drivers engage in mass protest. The drivers expressed their dissatisfaction with their economic losses in the face of lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the AID Bank loan facility of $15,000 extended to them is grossly insufficient.
In the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown, bus drivers were asked to carry only one passenger on a row of seat, a situation that caused financial losses to the drivers – most especially those servicing loan repayments on their vehicles. Those who counted the Portsmouth trip to Roseau – a 30-mile distance – a shortage parked their vehicles, while those who carried only one passenger struggled to meet their loan repayment plan.
Following the ease of restriction on movement, the government now allows bus drivers to carry three passengers on a row, instead of the four they were used to before the coronavirus pandemic. The bus drivers lamented that the $15,000 AID Bank loan extended to them is not sufficient, and that many drivers could not access the loan because they do not meet qualification criteria.
The bus drivers urged other commercial drivers in the area to ditch their vehicles and join their protests even with mounting crowds of stranded passengers. Ian Douglas, the parliamentary representative for Portsmouth, was on hand to witness the protest and had the opportunity to calm the drivers.
He placated the drivers by telling them that the loan facility is available to anyone who is able to provide proof of business ownership as well as the records of financial transactions for the past year. He added that the government will revisit the loan criteria by examining the validity of the drivers’ concerns.
“It is a matter of educating them on what is available and how they can access it,” Hon. Douglas later told news reporters at the scene. “I understand where they are coming from.”
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