Should traditional bus companies merge for the sake of the industry? BBB Prez weighs in on bus debate

The transportation industry finds itself at yet another familiar crossroads. The Belize Bus Association, whose members comprise most providers, wants security in their investments and argues that the National Bank of Belize, which is willing to provide those investments, get a seat on the Transport Board. They also say that they are willing to improve the conditions of buses and service, which oftentimes range from slipshod to nonexistent. This week, we’ve been speaking to a number of people about the challenges the industry faces, and today, we heard from the Belize Business Bureau’s president, Arturo Lizarraga. He says that existing bus companies should consider mergers. Here’s how he explained it:

Arturo Lizarraga, President, Belize Business Bureau: “It’s not as complicated as we want. First of all I’d like to say Mr.Ferguson has done a very good job on lots of fronts because this is a really tight pickle, this is a very complicated issue especially from the consumer point of view. I’ve ridden the bus and I’ve seen fights because of overcrowding and you know and they pull knives and there’s fighting there’s lots of tensions and then there was a time when the buses would pass and leave kids on the side of the road because their interest is they want to make more money and the kids are not paying as much. I had called Minister Coye on the issue and gave the commitment that they’ll spend more money on children and school buses. The bus owners they should be granted a chance to own the industry. I believe the approach that the minister is taking about trying to convince private owners to get together form a company and say okay if I’m going to put twenty buses, and I’m going to put five buses, and I’m going to put thirty buses you would reflect how much ownership they have. But there also has to be governance in terms of protecting minority interest. Not because the guy only has five bus that means the guy with thirty bus will make all the decisions. And that’s another issue that we have to start to invest in governance, how the boards and the utilities are managed not on the management end but on the board end in terms of whose interest is being represented and whose interest is gaining or profiting from the decisions being made. So the other issue that we have to deal with in the buses is we used to have a run where the buses from Tikal would come to Belize and bring tourists and then we would have the chance to go from here to Tikal that needs to happen and if it means that we need to upgrade the buses then let’s do it right ? But we also have to be fair that let’s not just give one company that opportunity.”