THE short bus route in Honiara was triggered by daily targets imposed by Asian bus owners on their drivers and conductors.
That was according to a bus driver Timothy Aloga.
He disclosed this to the Solomon Star during Monday’s five hour protest by bus drivers and conductors in Honiara against the increasing entry of Asians into the local bus industry.
“When you work for a Chinese bus owner; you have no option but to come up with techniques to counter the pressure of hitting daily targets,” Mr Aloga said.
“As a result bus drivers turn to operate along short routes to hit their daily targets knowing that if they don’t hit their daily targets, they will be either verbally abused or sacked as the result,” he added.
Mr Aloga said the idea of short route is just a new thing in the public bus industry which could have been avoided if only local people run the service themselves.
He said when only local people run the bus industry some years back, they respect their customers by running long routes from Naha to Point Cruz and further down to White River at the same fare.
But he said after some Chinese entered the market; it is extremely difficult to run long routes because the way they run business; they cared much more about making profits and turned a blind eye on the service part of the business.
Mr Aloga said if only local people run the bus business like they used to be before, buses will provide long route service again without any doubt.
According to the bus drivers who staged the protest, there were about five Chinese bus owners currently running buses in Honiara and they owned more than 100 buses.
By BIRIAU W. SAENI