Private transport operators with conventional buses and
kombis operating under the Zupco franchise are appealing to Government to
consider increasing their hire fees with either facilitating access to cheap
spare parts or paying them in foreign currency to enable them to maintain their
vehicles being the other alternative.
Presently, the transport operators are being paid $4 000 a
day for big buses and $1 000 for kombis but feel these fees have been eroded by
inflation.
Zupco fares have quadrupled in recent months, with long
buses on urban routes charging $4 or $6 depending on the length of the journey,
and Zupco kombis charging twice that $8 or $12, depending on journey.
Those fares were built on a doubling of fares since the new
Zupco services started, so fares are eight-times higher than at the start of
the service. Hire charges have risen, but only after the Government, which pays
the hire charges as part of the subsidies, has gone through the actual costs
incurred by bus companies and has considered that the hire charges are valid.
Negotiations for revised hire rates are expected to
commence this week. Since June 2, 2020 Zupco has been hiring conventional buses
at $4 000 and kombis $1 000 per day. But in a letter addressed to Secretary for
Local Government and Public Works, Mr Zvinechimwe Churu on Friday, the Greater
Harare Association of Commuter Operators (GHACO) sought an urgent meeting with
Government to discuss the challenges at Zupco.
“Further to our letters of May 4 (and) June 16, 2020
requesting an urgent review of hire fees, we kindly request for an urgent meeting
to highlight and discuss with you these issues including inadequate kombi hire
fees of $1 000 against $4 700 total cost per kilometre,” read the letter.
It adds that high inflation, late reviews and late payments
of hire fees, were adversely impacting their operations. The operators are also
calling for assistance with cheaper spare parts for the kombis under the Zupco
franchise, so that they spend more time on the road than in garages.
GHACO secretary general, Mr Ngoni Katsvairo, said on Sunday
that they were likely going to meet Government this week.
“We want our hire fees reviewed from $1 000 per day to $4
700 (for kombis),” he said. “We also want to table a proposal to Government
that it pays us in US dollars, about US$65 per day via nostro accounts as spare
parts suppliers demand foreign currency or exorbitant charges in local
currency, which are beyond our reach.”
Mr Katsvairo said the proposed US$65 would cater for all
operational costs and their 15 percent mark-up. In an interview yesterday, Mr
Churu said there was a possibility of an increase in hire fees any time soon.
However, Mr Churu said more details would be availed after Government meets the
operators.
“Prices for most commodities have been increasing so there
is a high possibility that the hiring fees for conventional buses and commuter
omnibuses will be reviewed,” he said.
“There is need to strike a balance between viability of the
operators, Zupco and the paying public. Income should be generated from the
business itself, but as Government we also want to protect passengers as well
from the high transport cost.”
The commuting public has been spending a lot of time at
terminuses as demand for transport rises, along with suspicions that some
operators are not fulfilling their Zupco contracts over frequency of services.
Government sees the provision of subsidised transport as a
critical non-financial incentive for those needing transport and the Zupco
franchising as a way of bringing the previously wayward kombi owners into a
controlled and managed system. Herald
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