Passenger bus transport businesses: Save yourself!

08:27, 11/12/2023

Dak Lak is one of the localities that early and well implemented the model of socializing public passenger transport by bus. However, in recent years, bus transport businesses are "struggling" even when all activities have returned to normal.

The whole province currently has more than 200 buses, operating on 26 routes from the center of Buon Ma Thuot city to districts and towns in the province and some routes to Dak Nong province.

With advantages such as reasonable prices, widespread network, in the early days of socialization, buses were the choice of many passengers who were officials, civil servants, public employees, students and people in remote areas in the province and some localities of Dak Nong province.

However, from 2019 until now, many bus routes have had to temporarily stop operating. Even though other businesses replaced and restored the routes, they were still in a difficult situation, with revenue losses.

Bus route from Buon Ma Thuot City to Gia Nghia City (Dak Nong province) is sparsely populated.

Specifically, in 2019, 5 routes including 1 inner-city route of Buon Ma Thuot and 4 routes from Buon Ma Thuot City to some communes and towns of Cu M'gar District had to temporarily stop operating. By July 2021, 4 more routes from Buon Ma Thuot City to some communes of Cu M'gar District also had to stop operating due to ineffective and loss-making operations. Most recently, Dak Lak Automobile Transport Joint Stock Company also announced the suspension of 2 bus routes from Buon Ma Thuot City - Lak District and Buon Ma Thuot City - Krong No District (Dak Nong Province) from the beginning of December 2023 due to lack of passengers to maintain the routes.

There are many reasons for the above situation. For example, the situation of "illegal buses and bus stations" operating in the province in recent years; many private cars (mainly from 4 to 7 seats) operating in the transportation business but not registered for business, picking up and dropping off passengers on all routes from urban to rural areas; or the situation of 16-seat transport vehicles operating in violation of their business registration license (registering fixed routes but picking up and dropping off passengers like contract vehicles), especially at bus stops... has caused buses to no longer have a "place to live". Because the above disguised types of transportation, in addition to picking up passengers at home upon request, also "pick up" passengers at bus stops about 5 - 10 minutes in advance. Many opinions and petitions have been sent to the authorities by the Dak Lak Province Automobile Transport Association, but the lack of determination in handling violations has led to the proliferation of disguised forms of transport and "illegal vehicles".

A series of vehicles of Dak Lak Automobile Transport Joint Stock Company are parked due to lack of passengers.

In addition to the above objective reasons, a reality that needs to be frankly acknowledged is that most bus transport businesses only focus on investing in quantity, not quality. Despite investment in expanding the network, many of the vehicles of these businesses are too old, and the quality of passenger service is not good. In particular, the construction of routes does not meet the travel needs of people in the current period. The low frequency, passengers have to wait for quite a long time, causing buses to gradually lose customers right at the bus stop - which is considered the "home ground" of this type of service.

It can be affirmed that the socialization of public passenger transport by bus is one of the solutions to reduce the pressure on the state budget in Dak Lak province in the past 20 years. However, for buses to continue operating and developing, it is necessary to have the participation of state management agencies, as well as functional forces in handling and preventing the situation of "illegal buses and bus stations". Another fundamental issue is that transport enterprises must save themselves and renew themselves, focusing on maintaining, repairing, and upgrading vehicles and bus stop systems, along with training a team of professional drivers and service staff, stabilizing ticket prices to ensure benefits for both the people and their units... Thereby, meeting the increasing travel needs of passengers and maintaining the pace of development for enterprises.

Snow White

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