Government is paying as much as $700 a day per every hired bus in its deal with private public transport operators that are partnering struggling State-owned Zupco.<\/p>\n
This came out when Local Government minister July Moyo gave statistics at the post-Cabinet Press briefing on Tuesday, where he said government was spending $3 million a month on hiring private buses.<\/p>\n
The Zupco deal came following fare hikes by kombi operators in January after government had increased the prices of both diesel and petrol by 150%.<\/p>\n
Then, commuters were at the mercy of kombi operators, some who had hiked fares threefold, leaving commuters stranded in most cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe charged a flat rate of ZWR$700 per day. We expected at that time that each bus will run nine trips, but those have not been achieved because of congestion,\u201d Moyo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the subsidy in the first month was larger than normal, but we think that in the next month, it is going to be lower. We are now fine-tuning with the bus owners for us to pay for a bus that has done work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moyo said, in addition, government has been giving bus operators a subsidy which he could not disclose.<\/p>\n
He said through the partnership, Zupco had sourced 247 buses deployed across the country to help the commuting public.<\/p>\n
The buses charge a $1 per trip and in some cases, move empty after kombis also reduced their fares to $1 or $1,50.<\/p>\n
Moyo said so far, the company was not making profits, but being able to pay for its fuel as well as settle staff salary obligations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Government is paying as much as $700 a day per every hired bus in its deal with private public transport operators that are partnering struggling State-owned Zupco. This came out when Local Government minister July Moyo gave statistics at the post-Cabinet Press briefing on Tuesday, where he said government was spending $3 million a month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,12],"tags":[430,342,431,55,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-5142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-homepage-english","9":"category-policy","10":"tag-bus","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-commuting","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-zupco"},"yoast_head":"\n