RTA declines more time to phase out school minivans
Several schools seek time until June when the academic year ends
Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has declined to give more time to school transport operators to phase out minivans on the school run.
The ban on school minivans came into effect from March 1, 18 months after RTA first announced the decision. But several schools and transport operators are still seeking time until the end of June to complete the shift.
As many as 1,000 12-seater vans are expected to go off the school run when the schools reopen next week after the spring break.
Adel Shakeri, Director of Planning and Business Development at RTA’s Public Transport Agency, said: “As per the guidelines, minivans are discontinued with effect from March 1 and there are no further extensions agreed or given.”
He said RTA announced the ban in October 2014, giving transport operators a grace period of 18 months to implement the decision and any further extension is not feasible.
Until recently, around 30 per cent of vehicles used for school transportation in Dubai were minibuses and vans, which traffic experts deemed unsafe.
According to Shakeri, all minibuses that were on the school run are already off the road.
However, several school managements and transport operators are still hoping to get an extension from RTA.
“Right from day one, we have been telling RTA officials that implementing such an enormous decision in the middle of the year will not be possible. We are still in discussions with them and we are hoping that they will understand our issues,” said the head of a school group that operates three schools, wishing to remain anonymous.
She added that the academic year in British and American curriculum schools ends in June and shifting from minivans to bigger buses in the middle of the year will adversely impact the school operations.
“We operate 35 school buses out of which 20 are small vans. Shifting the students from these 20 vans to bigger buses will involve several logistical considerations. We will have to rework the entire system. These students will have to spend longer time on buses as they will have to be moved to 10 bigger buses and routes will have to be combined, each covering many areas,” while each van covered only one area, she added.
Nawsherwan Hussain, manager of Arab Falcon Transport, that provides transport services to 10 schools in Dubai and operates 60 minivans, said that students will suffer the most. He said that due to the ban, students of different minibuses (12 seats) will have to be put on a single bus (23 seats) to be feasible for the operations.
“The ban on minivans will have an apparent effect on the length of the route, and given the current logistics, we expect a difference of 20-30 minutes both in the morning and afternoon commuting time. Any midterm switch to lengthy commute will have an apparent effect on the academic progress of a student who will have to cope with the increased time on road,” he said.
He added that it will be difficult to convince parents as students will spend an extra 20 to 30 minutes on the road.
Apart from the issue of rerouting, another logistical issue faced by transport operators is the availability of big buses (23 seats) and availability of drivers for these buses.
“A 12-seater van driver cannot drive a 23-seater bus. He needs to pass the test to get a licence for (driving) a big bus, and then he has to get an RTA permit to drive a school bus. It is next to impossible to get everything ready before the schools reopen next week,” Ali Khan, coordinator of Rengly Transport, operating 29 minivans for five schools.
Khan added: “Since we didn’t get enough time to manage the shift, we have requested RTA to give us time until the end of the current academic year after which we will have two months break when can make all necessary changes.”
Khan said that his company along with several other school transport operators had raised these concerns 18 months back when the grace period was given.
“We had requested RTA from day one that for British, American and IB Curriculum school, the grace period should be 21 months until June 2016 so that we may end our academic year with the current logistics of buses,” he said.
