[sustran] Re:Road Passenger Transport Regulation - another Question.

[Antony J Plumbe]

Dear All,

In many developing countries, the paratransit operators are 
self-regulating through their formal and informal Associations in 
regard to vehicle route allocation, and/or vehicle scheduling, and/or 
fares, and/or market entry. Examples that I have encountered at 
various dates in the past are minibuses in Jamaica, matatus in Nairobi, 
samlors in Bangkok, and all sorts of paratransit in many Indonesian 
cities.   Very few exhibit much attention to safety standards or other 
quality of service attributes from the passenger perspective. 

Tony Plumbe

On Tue, 15 Feb 2000 15:34:05 -0500 Paula Negron Poblete 
<negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA> wrote:

> Is true that in developed countries, regulation covers a wide range of
> aspects, including vehicles, quality of service and performance,
> sometimes, benefits are also controlled. In developing countries, the
> performance of the service is less regulated (there are a few exceptions),
> the most important aspect is fares, so public authorities prefer to make
> the point on this aspect, by establishing the common fare (like in Mexico
> city). In those countries where informal transport is very common and has
> the major part of the trips,  it's difficult to put standards on service,
> so authorities prefer to make the point on the technical aspects of the
> vehicles.
> I agree with Alan P. Howes in the fact that a service-based approach can
> give interesting results, but in order to make this, the first step is to
> create a transport authority that can control not only the planning of
> transport routes, but also the performance in the service, even if
> sometimes this aspect remains difficult because of the participation of
> informal transport.
> 
> Alan P Howes a écrit :
> 
> > Thanks for the various contributions received re. the above.
> >
> > Now a fairly specific question:
> >
> > As far as I know, in "developed" countries regulation is applied to
> > services, rather than to vehicles. This is particularly the case for
> > buses - although there are also vehicle-based regulations to cover
> > safety aspects.
> >
> > In less-developed regions, it seems that regulation is more often
> > applied solely to the vehicle - typically with a licence attached to
> > it relating to a specific route.
> >
> > Am I right in the above, or is it an over-simplification? To me the
> > service-based approach has obvious advantages - what are the reasons
> > for it not being adopted more widely?
> >
> > regards, Alan.
> > --
> > Alan Howes, Special Advisor (Operations)
> > Saudi Public Transport Company, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
> > alanhowes at usaksa.com
> > PLEASE DO NOT SEND LARGE MESSAGES (>100kB) WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE
> >
> > *** A debt-free start for a billion people in the world's poorest  ***
> > *** countries - Jubilee 2000, http://www.jubilee2000uk.org         ***

----------------------
A. J. Plumbe, 
Director, Outside Programmes,
Co-ordinator M.Sc. in Project Planning and Management,
email: a.j.plumbe at bradford.ac.uk
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