Transporters hope that Government will continue to allow usage of re-equipped minibuses

The association of Private Transporters hopes to obtain modifications to the Government decision that stipulates removal from Chisinau public transport of re-equipped minibuses, so that these transport means continue to be used. President of the Private Transporters Association (PTA), Gheorghe Rusu, told Info-Prim Neo that the representatives of the minibus owners hope to have support from the Ministry of Transport and Road Management, the Chisinau City Hall, Transporters Union and some factions of the Parliament. During meetings with representatives of the aforementioned institutions, the transporters exposed arguments in favor of keeping the re-equipped minibuses in exploitation. The request of the transporters is that the Government allows the owners of the re-equipped means of transport to use them according to their exploitation terms, included in their technical documentation. According to them, this will not allow that the citizens of the Republic of Moldova remain without financial sources within 10 years. The negotiations involve not only minibus drivers and owners, but also several other companies. PTA pleads for the modification of the 5th point of the Government decision no. 910 regarding the approval of the Auto transport regulations for passengers and luggage, valid from August 8 2006, which plans to remove within a year the re-equipped transport means (minibuses). Therefore, by the end of this year, according to the mentioned decision, minibuses manufactured in 91’ and 92’ will be removed from exploitation, and the rest will be removed by the end of next year. According to Rusu, the transporters agree that no future licenses for re-equipped transport are granted, and these could be replaced by other transport means that correspond with the demands. The cited source claims that this way the Government will act correctly towards the minibus owners, which invested tens of thousand of leis in the acquisition and re-equipment of the transport vehicles. Although, according to the legislation, the minibuses are allowed to function only in their 15 years of exploitation, a car could be used even for 20 years according to the cited source. According to the him, it would be correct if the exploitation term could be established by the maintenance stations during the twice a year technical revision. According to Rusu, at the testing stations, which are equipped with the most modern machines, the minibuses are exposed to the most rigorous control from all passenger transport vehicles, and it is here where the transport units could be evaluated with an exploitation deadline. Considering this, Rusu mentioned that over 95% of the minibuses from Chisinau are „Mercedes”. Starting with 1994, the passenger transport business started to involve minibuses from several producers, but in time these were eliminated and surpassed by the „Mercedes”, which have superior technical parameters and economic efficiency. Even re-equipped, these do not pose a threat for the passenger transport, Rusu claimed, and mentioned that the owners of these vehicles have no problem with spare parts, as there is an official „Mercedes” subsidiary in Chisinau. The PTA president believes that re-equipped vehicles are no different from those designed to transport passengers, and are also cheaper and less expensive to support. “A new car costs EUR 35 thousand, a re-equipped one – EUR 17-18 thousand, and considering the poverty in the Republic of Moldova this is a considerable difference”, the cited source added. Rusu also claims that an argument in the disfavor of elimination of re-equipped cars is also the fact that the local banking system doesn’t grant credits for vehicle purchase, and transporters need considerable financial support to buy new cars. Although it is possible to guy Russian „Gazel”, which cost around EUR 7-8 thousand, these cannot be compared in terms of technical characteristics with the re-equipped „Mercedes”. When asked how the passenger flow was influenced by the price change, Gheorghe Rusu declared that passengers continue to prefer this kind of public transport. There problems though, as the municipality changed traditional itineraries, especially on central streets. The head of PTA considers that the municipality should ask the opinion of the passengers, as according to him, the changes were not made in favor of the citizens, but to increase profits of urban autobus and trolleybus routes. Although transporters claim that the current tariff also not according to international standards, that states that the price for a ticket should equal the price of a liter of fuel, now only at a third of this amount, they continue to work as they understand that most of the population is poor, the cited source claims. Rusu also mentined that the minibus owners will not request a fee increase in the international petrol prices remain the same. At present, from the approximately 2000 minibuses that passed in spring the technical revision, over 55% are re-equipped vehicles. The Private Transporters Association protects the interests of minibus owners from Chisinau municipal and is a member of the Union of Transporters.