An­ge­lo Mar­celle

Every morn­ing these peo­ple take the na­tions chil­dren from their homes and trans­port them to their des­tined nurs­eries, pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools, and even ter­tiary lev­el in­sti­tutes. Who are they? They are the dri­vers of the Pri­vate School Trans­port As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad & To­ba­go (PSTATT). Based in Phase One of the Mal­abar Hous­ing Set­tle­ment, the group com­pris­es a 13-mem­ber ex­ec­u­tive and more than 800 mem­bers across both is­lands. While this fig­ure is in no way a true rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the vast num­ber of pri­vate cit­i­zens that trans­port school chil­dren on a dai­ly ba­sis, the group is still proud of its grow­ing mem­ber­ship.

Pres­i­dent of PSTATT, George La Vende, out­lined the the main func­tions of the non-prof­it or­gan­is­tion.

"We pro­vide trans­port from the chil­dren's home to the school gate; we car­ry them on time and un­harmed; we pro­vide a lev­el of com­fort to the child and par­ent; one mode of trans­port; it saves the child from any form of crime on their jour­ney; in­crease pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in the work place as par­ents have more time on their hands; and the dri­ver acts as a li­ai­son." The group has been in ex­is­tence for 16 years, but has on­ly been for­mal­ly reg­is­tered for two years. Since its reg­is­tra­tion, the team has been seek­ing new and amend­ed leg­is­la­tions to en­sure that all par­ties in­volved are com­fort­able. One such amend­ment is fo­cused on the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle and Road traf­fic Act, Chap 48.50, Sec­tion 4 (1) (a) in sec­tion 2 (i) & (ii), seek­ing to en­sure that the or­gan­i­sa­tion's op­er­a­tions are in-keep­ing with the laws of T&T.

"We are wait­ing on Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er to car­ry the Bill to Par­lia­ment so that fur­ther amend­ments can be made. With this dri­vers will then be able to ply their trade with­out the is­suance of traf­fic tick­ets," he said. He said while most po­lice of­fi­cers were sym­pa­thet­ic to­wards the dri­vers, oth­ers were not as un­der­stand­ing. "Those po­lice of­fi­cers who are is­su­ing tick­ets have stat­ed that un­til the law is amend­ed, the trans­porta­tion sys­tem is still il­le­gal," La Vende said. But while all these de­tails are be­ing sort­ed out, mem­bers of the as­so­ci­a­tion are fur­ther prepar­ing them­selves to serve the na­tion.

The laws of the PSTATT con­sti­tu­tion man­date that dri­vers who wish to join the as­so­ci­a­tion must:

Be at least 25 years of age;

Have a po­lice cer­tifi­cate of good char­ac­ter;

Pass a de­fen­sive dri­ving test;

Pass a first aid course;

Have their ve­hi­cle that is reg­is­tered to trans­port chil­dren paint­ed in yel­low;

Com­ply with the rules and reg­u­la­tions as stat­ed by law.

While many of the bus­es are still white, the as­so­ci­a­tion is on a dri­ve to have all mem­bers change the colour to yel­low by Au­gust. Dri­vers will be asked to have a stan­dard­ised dress code, with the op­tion of T-shirts with the as­so­ci­a­tion's lo­go print­ed on them. The as­so­ci­a­tion is al­so con­sid­er­ing the vi­a­bil­i­ty of a tar­iff for its mem­bers. PSTATT mem­bers al­ready have dis­count cards that en­ti­tle them to 15 per cent dis­counts at some busi­ness­es, and Bankers In­sur­ance Ltd has al­ready signed with the group to han­dle all of it's in­sur­ance needs.