THE Land Transport Regulatory Authority (LATRA) has suspended licenses of 27 passenger buses in a month of March this year.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday LATRA Director General, CPA Habibu Suluo, said the decision has been made in accordance with Section 5 (1) (b) of Land Transport Control, Chapter 413 and Rules 27 (1) (c) and (d) of the transport license regulations (public service vehicles) of 2020.
Suluo said the suspension of the licenses has been done as penalty for interfering with the bus Vehicle Tracking System (VTS), with intention of skipping or stop the system from sending information.
"After the authority's experts conducted an investigation, it was discovered that the batteries of the Vehicle Tracking and Directing System (VTDS) had been damaged and their electric systems replaced.
"But worse enough there are buses whose software has been changed resulting in sending false information to our monitoring station; you will see the bus starts its journey until it arrives at a constant speed," he said.
Following the incident, the authority also suspended Utrack Africa Ltd and Easy Track Solution JV RJ Motchand Ltd., two amongst the five companies that offer services for the Busses Tracking and Directing System, after an evaluation discovered flaws that could not be accepted.
He said that the companies are currently required to fix the defects found on the banned buses and if they fix the system, they will be allowed to continue with the service of installing new devices.
Mr Suluo further reminded bus owners and service providers to follow morals and ethics, including stopping to play immoral films and music.
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Besides, he directed all the schools that provide school bus services to submit a list of the vehicles that provide the service, the names of the drivers, along with their license numbers and National Identification Number (NIDA), as a measure to control acts of violence against students.
Along with that, the director also said that the government has made minor amendments to the rules of the transport for hire industry (the Land Transport Regulatory Authority (Private Hire Services) Regulations, 2020) and allowed the procedure of self-regulation and the presence of an authorized agent in the provision of those services, especially with regard to Bajaj and 'bodaboda' in the cooperative system.
Traffic Police Force Commander, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SACP) Ramadhani Ng'anzi, said that the Force has suspended the licenses of 30 drivers.
SACP Ng'anzi stated that among them, 17 drivers have been banned due to tampering with the vehicle tracking system, and 13 are due to different offenses of not following road safety rules.
