Omnibus operators ready to transport post-secondary students |18 May 2020

Local omnibus operators have said they are ready to make the most of the opportunity to transport post-secondary students to and from school as from today.

Yesterday, Seychelles Association of the Omnibus Operators (SAO) chairman Mervin Elizabeth chaired three meetings with local omnibus operators at the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps) offices in Orion Mall to brief drivers about the ‘do’s and don’ts.

At the end of the meetings, operators or their representatives were given copies of the association’s code of ethics and the guidelines prepared by the transport department.

At the same time, many operators took the opportunity to register with the association.

SAO chairman Elizabeth told Seychelles NATION that originally they were to transport primary and secondary students but following the change they had to regroup and contact all post-secondary institutions to gather information about the number of students and their point of collection.

“It has been a busy week for us, but we are confident we will do a good job. More than 65 operators have shown an interest and by yesterday some were still registering to become members of the association to be eligible for business. We even have operators from Praslin who attended the meeting and they were to transport their mini-buses to Mahé last night,” said Mr Elizabeth.

With social distancing being implemented on buses, a 12-seater will take seven students, a 15-seater nine students and a 30-seater between 18 and 20 students.

Mr Elizabeth added that from Perseverance, post-secondary students will board any minibus for drop-off at the bus terminal where they will board their respective school bus.

Gerard Govinden