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Shoddy service being offered by speedboat operators in Demerara River

Jul 25, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Reading one of the daily newspapers (Monday, July 21st), I saw a caption “Indecent language on the speedboats” and decided to read what it was all about.

What the writer wrote is only one of the problems that exist daily and passengers are forced to accept; and I cannot understand why they are not standing up against these atrocities that they are forced to face every day by these speedboat operators.

I have written of these problems before, and called for those in authority, who are supposed to monitor the speedboat operators and their actions, be replaced or removed from their posts, because nothing seems to happen, whilst another major issue arose recently, and that, too, is being allowed to slide away easily.

Mr. Editor, every day all types of people and children use the speedboats to travel, and most times they have to witness the bow men and the captains using indecent language without any respect given to the commuters; and sometimes they, too, get abused verbally by the operators when they voice their dissatisfaction of the service, the attitude of the operators and the conditions they have to travel under.

Sometimes the commuters are lucky to witness these operators abusing some particular captains, telling them they are drunk because they are using alcohol whilst they are waiting on their turn for their boats to full, or commuters could also see operators using illegal drugs and smell it, too, because some of the operators are using it right in front of you.

On Monday, 21st July, whilst travelling from Vreed-en-Hoop, there was a husband and wife travelling and all the life jackets in the boat were wet.

When the man voiced his dissatisfaction, the boat operator and other boat operators that were close by started to abuse them verbally.

The man’s wife said that they can’t expect to collect people’s money and don’t care what conditions they have to travel under, when all the seats, too, are wet.

I grew up hearing that women could “buse”. Well, these operator would make them look small, because the man and his wife got a good “busing” whilst the rest of the passengers sat and listened, because most of them were scared to say anything and get the same treatment that were meted out to the husband and wife.

But I would like to congratulate them and wish them luck, because the last I saw of them was when they were entering the monitor’s room/office to make a report against the operators at Georgetown.

Recently, the operators started to demand $20. more on the fare, without giving any reasons for the increase, whilst the service has not been upgraded.

There is no proper covering to shelter the passengers from the rain. Sometimes I feel like these operators believe that they are doing us a service free of cost, so we have to accept whatever conditions they offer us, all because we want to reach our destination faster and there is no other faster solution.

I really do miss the jet boat service that was there, I would really like to know what happened to that service.

I wish it would come back, because that service did not have any complaints, to my knowledge, although the fare was $100. You were getting real service for your money.
Sahadeo Bates

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