The Kuo-Kuang Motor Transportation Workers’ Union yesterday urged the government to give relief funds to bus operators to cover their drivers’ salaries as quickly as possible after a nationwide level 3 alert for COVID-19 led to a sharp decline in passenger numbers.
Bus companies could previously generate at least NT$12 million (US$434,201) in revenue per day during the Dragon Boat Festival, but last year daily revenue dropped to NT$8 million as many people preferred to use private vehicles due to the pandemic, union chairman Yang Rong-de (楊榮德) said.
Due to the level 3 alert and people being encouraged to stay at home as much as possible, the number of passengers using public buses is expected to fall further during the festival this year, which begins on Saturday next week, he said.
After the Central Epidemic Command Center on Tuesday last week announced that the level 3 alert would be extended to June 14, the final day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the number of bus tickets sold for the first day of the holiday has fallen from about 10,000 in previous years to 1,000 this year, he added.
In view of the drastic decline in the number of passengers, Kuo-Kuang Motor Transportation Co has cut more than 50 percent of its services and encouraged drivers to take paid leave or to agree to go on furlough, Yang said, adding that this has placed drivers under great economic strain.
“There has been a shortage of drivers in the bus industry for years. The pandemic could cause more bus drivers to switch to jobs with higher pay, such as driving large trucks, and bus operators would be unable to resume full services once the restrictions are lifted. We hope the Ministry of Transportation and Communications can see the bigger issue here,” he said.
The union urged the government to as soon as possible distribute relief funds to bus operators, who desperately need the “life-saving money.”
The funds given to bus operators should be calculated based on the size of their fleet, Yang said, adding that the funds should be used to subsidize drivers’ salaries.
Bus drivers should also be placed on the priority list for vaccination, he said.
In related news, the Taiwan Railways Administration yesterday announced that it would cancel 162 services — 71 on weekdays and 91 at weekends — on its schedule from Wednesday next week to June 14 due to the extension of level 3 alert.
The 120 additional services that it planned to provide during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday would also be canceled, it said.
Tourism train services have been canceled until June 30, it added.
The number of high-speed rail services to be offered during the holiday is to be reduced from 832 to 464, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp said on Monday.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS