The three bus companies that were contracted to transport passengers in
the city now hope electronic ticketing will plug one of the revenue
leakages. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA | NATION
Rwanda public transport operators are seeing early gains from
electronic ticketing even as automated fare settlement leaves hundreds
unemployed.
Fleet owners have in the past found
difficulties realising revenue targets due to a combination of high
operating expenses and revenues leakages to their crews.
After
the entire city commuter fleet switched to the automated payment system
however, owners are reporting a 50 per cent increase in daily revenues.
“Before we switched to the smartcard system, the drivers used to bring Rwf25,000 ($297) to Rwf30,000 ($357) daily.
We
are now getting the targeted Rwf50,000 ($595) per commuter bus per
day,” said Bishop Kihangire, the head of operations, Rwanda Federation
of Transport Co-operatives.
His
colleague Deo Muvunyi, the manager for Kigali Bus Services (KBS), which
pioneered the card system in Kigali, said loss of revenue was a common
problem among operators because money went through many hands — the
conductor, driver and the company accountant.
Big fleet
operators blame the revenue leaks on collusion between the conductors,
drivers and accountants, making it hard for them to pay bank loans.
Coupled
with high operational costs, the revenue leaks were exacting a heavy
toll, sending many into bankruptcy, explaining the high number of public
transport companies that fold yearly.
“Even operators
with big fleets in the city are struggling. The pressure from government
to be on the road all the time, adhere to the contractual obligations
imposes high cost,” said Kahangire.
The three bus
companies that were contracted to transport passengers in the city have
to maintain a specific number of buses on each route, not wait beyond
five minutes at each stop and work even during off peak hours. But they
now hope electronic ticketing will plug one of the leakages.
The
smart cards and machines were developed by Kigali startup AC Group, a
technology company that specialises in smart transport solutions. Under
the smart card system, the money passengers load on their cards does not
get to operators directly.
It is banked in an escrow
account monitored by both AC Group and the operators before it is
distributed according to the number of passengers. AC Group, the system
vendor, earns five per cent commission off the gross revenue collection
per bus.
The development has however come at the
expense of conductors who have now been rendered jobless. The Rwanda
Federation of Transport Co-operatives, the biggest operator laid off
about 300 conductors.
“We
had 300 conductors. All of them have been laid off. The buses are now
fitted with the smart card systems,” said Bishop Kihangire, head of
operations at Rwanda Co-operative Transport Federation (RFTC).
Other
operators in the city, including Kigali Bus Services (KBS) with about
100 operational buses and Royal Express Ltd, with the same number of
buses, have also laid off conductors and are now using the smart card
system.
Combined, KBS and Royal Express were employing an estimated 300 conductors on the city routes.
Rwanda Today has
learnt other commuter bus operators on secondary roots outside Kigali
also plan to switch to the smart card system which could see more
conductors in the country lose jobs.
While the exact
number of conductors in the country is not known, statistics from Rwanda
Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) shows at least 3,300 vehicles
operating in public transport across the country.
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