Ritchie’s bus line out; Floralia takes runs
by Kristen Ku
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Feb. 16, 2023
Over a year ago the Minister of Transport, Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, had announced that local bus operators would have to upgrade their fleets in order to hold on to their permits, but many bus operators pointed to the fact that operational costs had skyrocketed due to ever-rising fuel prices and that their inability to raise fares was wiping out their profits—thus making it difficult for them to purchase new buses. A few months ago, however, it was reported that several bus operators had started to acquire newer bus models. The pace at which those fleets are being upgraded, however, has been slow, and this week the public found out that Ritchie’s bus line had become the first major casualty of the new Transport policy. The bus operators permit of Ritchie’s bus line, which has been operating since 2008, was not renewed by the Transport Board—prompting the operator, which carried out its last day of operation on Tuesday, to seek legal action. The bus line is being represented by attorney Orson “OJ” Elrington.
On Tuesday, Elrington told a 7News reporter, “It is exactly what I have been saying from the time I have started to look at this—that this is an issue that not only affects Mr Ritchie, but I believe every single bus operator in Belize needs to look at this and see that this is not an attack only on Mr Ritchie or on, I believe, Williams is the name of the other family who has been in operation for decades in Belize in the bus industry. It is not only an attack on them, it is an attack on every single bus owner and it is an attack that they should seriously look at, not as individuals but as a collective body, and do whatever it takes to ensure that this type of action cease and desists.”
He further made mention of the additional runs—including a key run to/in Placencia that was previously assigned to Ritchie’s—that have been picked up by the new Floralia bus line which operates a fleet of luxury buses and, according to reports, was also given runs to Belmopan and to the Philip Goldson International Airport.
“… there is clearly a move afoot to give, now I can call the name, Floralia, preferential treatment and for them to effectively spread their wings as the Minister had indicated some months ago that he expects them to go across the country, and regrettably our local bus owners like Mr. Ritchie and his family who has dedicated their entire life to servicing the people of Belize are victims of this expansion. So indeed, we are in the process of filing that application. The application has not been filed as yet. We wanted certain things to manifest itself and come clearly to light, and the final thing that we needed happened today, and so we should be expecting to file that application no later than tomorrow,” said Elrington.
President of the Belize Bus Association, Thomas Shaw, who sits as a representative on the Board of Transport, and who also operates a bus line that will be in direct competition with Floralia for passengers heading to Belmopan, told News5 that no empathy was shown toward Ritchie’s bus line, despite all the company’s years of service, and said that he should have been given more time to upgrade his fleet. He believes that this is just a precursor of what is likely in store for other bus operators who simply do not have the financial resources to acquire new buses within a short time span.
The Minister of Transport, Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, however, shared an alternative view with reporters. He said that upgrading of buses is necessary to improve the transportation services being offered to the public.
“I hope that by the end of 2024 when everybody meets the standard, because I have said that by the end of 2024, all those old buses must get off the highway, then we will introduce a ticketing system that will allow us to monitor the buses as they travel on the highway. We will know when they stop, when they pick up somebody, and when they drop off somebody. So, it is just a matter of time,” said Ferguson.
Notably, however, some bus operators are taking steps to resist any attempts to possibly push them out of the market. It was reported that this week, the president of the Bus Association, Thomas Shaw, went himself to the Belize City bus terminal prior to the departure of both his own Shaw Bus and a Floralia bus which would both be offering an 8:00 p.m. run to Belmopan on Tuesday night. According to reports, Shaw engaged in an active effort to direct passengers to his bus and reportedly took steps to prevent commuters from being able to see the Floralia bus by obstructing their view. That Floralia bus thus departed with reportedly only one passenger.
When questioned by a reporter about it, he said, “Mr. Shaw doesn’t normally come out here, so once I come out here, you know something is going down … What is being done? As you can see, whenever you issue a road service permit you are supposed to do your due diligence, okay. The first thing, you need to come out and see if there is a need for the bus. If you know another operator is doing the run, why put another operator on the run?”
He added, “It’s not really a protest; I am taking care of my business. I will be dealing with it.”
While Floralia, which began offering its services in December 2021 with a run from Punta Gorda to Belize City, is being seen by other operators as an intrusive new entrant that is taking away their runs, co-owner and director of the company, Marvin Vanzie said that it has just taken advantage of the new openings that resulted after some permits were not renewed.
“It’s two mutually exclusive events that occurred. One is Mr. Ritchie and his runs, I believe they expired by the end of 2022, and the government was within its right to renew their license or to make amendments or not to renew their license … and Mr. Ritchie’s has always been plagued by mechanical issues, a lot of breakdowns … they’ve had their difficulties, and their reliability has been shaky, but that’s DOT’s side, but the point is they chose to not renew his license, and so when I became aware that there was an opening to move into Placencia and begin to operate, I mean, I’m just a company that wants to expand when the opportunity is there. And so I heard of that, I put in my letter of interest, and after putting in my letter of interest I was informed that if I was serious, then put in my application, which we did, and then we got back the ‘yes, it’s something that we can do’ and we were given a date,” Vanzie said.
He also denied claims that his company had received preferential exemptions from the government. “I wish that we got exemptions; I wish that we got some kind of special treatment because of the large investment that is involved in this. It’s not a 30,000-dollar bus like all the other buses that are on the road, it’s a 380,000 dollar bus, so I do wish, honestly, I wish that we had those special privileges, but we didn’t. It’s like crazy amount of money, and I understood, I did lobby, I did ask, ‘can we get some kind of ability to lower our prices because it’s like such a large investment, it’s something that Belize needs’. But I was told by the Ministry of Finance that, nope, we can’t, because we’re going to set a precedence and if you do it, then it’s going to have to be done for all the other bus operators. And it hurt the pocket, it did change the entire business model, but it’s understandable, it has to be something that’s passed by law and it’s functional for everybody, so no, we did not, and I just buy spare parts. I paid 18,000 in spare parts and I know when that gets to the border, it’s not going to get no special privilege. We’re going to have to pay our duties like everybody else,” he claimed.
He further stated, “… I know the talk about preferential treatment and from the outside from their point of view, they can keep saying that, but they just have to remember that, if they were on a board and their mandate as part of that board was to improve on the system and bring change and improvement, and the list of improvements mean newer buses, or reliable service, all these things, and when you have a system that is not doing that, and you have an operator that for whatever reason, in our case we made the investment in all of these things, that can do it so whenever there’s a bid and opening, then because of our investment, not because of who we are, but because we do have a better bus. Now, if someone else had a newer bus or the same bus as us, then I’d say we don’t really have an advantage, but our advantage comes from our own creativity and our investment, not necessarily because of some connection that we have.”
However, one online news site today posted a photo of a purported letter, dated January 28th 2022, from the Ministry of Finance to Vanzie that informs the Director of Floralia Limited that the Minister of Finance “had approved the waiver of 75% Import Duty and Excise Duty payable on four (4) 2022 Yulong Buses … along with 150 packages of spare parts.”
When asked about the speculation that he has some personal connection to the company, Transport Minister Ferguson denied such claims and insisted that his decision in giving Floralia the green light was based solely on the high standards they have set with their quality service.
“You guys could search anywhere in the world and see if Rodwell Ferguson have any shares in Floralia and if he gets any money from them. I don’t behave that way. I am here to do a job,” he said.