E-bus ticketing is a solution to end passenger troubles in bus terminals

THERE has been some harassment which some passengers encounters whenever they approach a bus terminal with a view to arrange for the bookings of their journey. This is a perennial problem which critics say is as a result of the liberalization of the transport industry. The continued habit has been inconveniencing passenger movements making them psychologically confused an aspect which sometimes cause them to loose some of valuable properties including their luggage. To some extent some are robbed of their money. Thomas Kabuyi is a business man from Mwanza who for the first time was confronted by touts recently at Ubungo Bus terminal in Dar es Salaam on his way back to Mwanza. He experienced an amazing phenomenon which he had never come into contact with.  Narrating the story, on the fateful day upon reaching a place at 05:15 that morning when it was still dark, he disembarked from a daladala bus and was immediately was surrounded by more than four people who pretended to be booking clerks of a traveling agent, and more surprisingly each one touting for the destination they could imagine he was going.  At first, he seemed unconcerned with their sympathizing offer as he was hurriedly walking towards the terminal to book for a bus ticket whichever he could get going to Mwanza. Since he didn’t have a ticket, he had to bargain by one of them who promised to give him a discount. After accepting the offer, he came to realize that, he was deceived when he had boarded the bus and paid a higher fare rate of about Sh45, 000 instead of Sh32, 000 for a two by three seater bus, the fare that’s normally charged by a famous Zuberi bus which plies its route to Mwanza.  Such tricks are commonly practiced by quite a substantial number of touts at the bus terminal, and without the awareness of passengers, most of them fall into their traps with ease and sometimes robbed of their money. Investigations carried out by this paper has discovered that most passengers do not bother to report at the booking offices directly to face the transport agents to enquire legal information for their safety, and instead are easily lured by touts who are after money. As most passengers are not familiarized with the situation around, are easily lured and become more convinced by touts to accept any bus they could be told was ready and which is not specifically of their own choice. Investigations by this paper has found out that, touts are normally promised by transport agents for the payment of Sh2,000 per each passenger they manage to convince their mind into accepting to board their buses.  So in order for touts to ensure their successful secret planned mission, they have to use quire tricks to tell passengers that the bus they need was already full, and some of them could even go as far as showing the wrong passenger sheet papers which they walk along with them into making their treachery possible. Mwajuma Omary is a resident of Tanga who also has suffered the same fate when she was traveling to Mbeya one day. Narrating the story, she said that, “she has ever lost his luggage when touts surrounded and snatched her bag as though pretending to help her.  Accompanied by her two young daughters and the little one she carried on her back, the touts who approached her tended to escort her at the booking office. To her dismay one of them who had carried her luggage lost out of her sight and suddenly vanished to unknown destination with her bag. She cried in agony after a long search for the man, and without help as everybody he saw was busy and nobody cared to help her trace the whereabouts of the man when she pleaded for help from passersby and eventually her luggage got lost for ever. When she reported the matter to the police post station located within the terminal compound, to a great dismay the search amounted by the policeman bore no fruits. She lamented for her luggage which has never been recovered up to now.  

Jumanne Hamisi (26) a third year student of Tumaini University of Iringa campus studying law suffered a severe fate three years ago before he joined the University when he called at the terminal, the sad story he recalls and that he hasn’t yet found the mouth with which to narrate.  He says that, on the fateful day he was issued with a ticket by touts whom he believed to be working as booking clerks when he met them on his way towards the main gate as he approached the terminal, and only to find that it was a faked ticket on the following day when he reported at the terminal to board a bus. Hamisi who by then was a secondary school boy, had to board Skyline bus according to the ticket he had, and after ascertaining that the ticket was not for the bus company, he demanded for the original and a real copy issued by the transport agent. He became furious and fiercely disappointed when asked by bus conductors to substantiate from where he got the ticket and who had issued it to him among the clerks who that morning were paraded at the booking office for identification. He however, couldn’t see the man among the present clerks shown at the office. Puzzled by this matter, he was also shown a legal sheet of all passengers who had booked for the bus the previous day. When he realized his name was not there he was shocked and became surprised as panic reigned within himself wondering how. He immediately knew he had been conned. He then remained silent pondering over the next move and without any help whatsoever as there was no evidence that could further support his argument.  There are so many annoying things like theft being practiced by touts at the bus terminal that cause detrimental effects to passengers especially on booking. Such malpractices to a great dismay when brought before the law-enforcers are not given special attention as they deserves. However, an association of the bus transporting agents at the terminal has been frequently warning passengers to be careful with the ticket hawkers and middlemen whom they accuse of intermingling with their business operations and thus tarnishing the good name of their association. The Secretary General of the Association, Khamisi Maneno said in an interview that, there has been unscrupulous people who tend to be ticket agents and illegally charging passengers with inflated fare rates contrary to what has been commissioned by SUMATRA. In view of this escalating problem, he has however asked passengers to be careful with the people who does their job outside the main agents’ offices which are numbered to avoid confusion by people when approaching the bus terminal at Ubungo. Stakeholders through Tanzania Bus Owners Association have ever asked for the government’s intervention as the owners of the yard in order to curb with the escalating habits under which passengers suffers, but their efforts have since ended up in vain. Commenting on the issue, TABOA’s Secretary General Enea Mrutu has critically blamed the government for maintaining silence on the issue of touts who have now and then become a threat to the passengers at the Ubungo Bus terminal. “We are strongly objecting the presence of touts at the bus terminal, and in view of this, we are therefore requesting the government to take legal stern measures which would help evict them out of the yard”, he said last week in an exclusive interview. He insisted that, “since the yard belongs to the government, and they as TABOA have hired the area, therefore, the responsibility of removing the troublesome touts in the area is entirely upon the government”. On the other side, he has blamed some passengers who embraces touts for help, and consequently are easily tempted and absorbed by their words when approaching the terminal. In view of this, he has therefore appealed to the passengers to make sure that, they report at the respective booking offices directly to enquire for information and get legal tickets whenever they arrange for the journey. In a bid to curb with the escalating phenomena, TABOA is working on the e-bus ticketing system whose launching is about to take place. Under the system travelers will be able to make booking reservations for their travel arrangements more quickly and with ease. According to Ernea, the service will help prospective travelers to get their tickets from anywhere they shall be located, and added that the service will be launched and the Dar es Salaam bound Ubungo upcountry bus terminal has been selected to be the pilot project. He said once the preparations are over, passengers will use their mobile phones to ask for the reservation in one of the transporting agents and be informed of the available quotations detailing price list and fare rates in terms of kilometers which is designed for the respective routes. He further noted that, a passenger in need of traveling will use mobile phone to make a call by using code numbers which will be made available at every regional bus terminal in the country and once the quotations given are certified, and then a passenger will settle payments through M-PESA onto a specified account. Describing the importance of the service, Mrutu noted that, passengers will easily be moving freely and avoid inconveniences normally they encounter when confronted by touts whenever they go to acquire tickets for traveling at a bus terminal. The service will reduce the rate at which theft has grown in most bus terminals in the country as some people have turned conmen who pretends to be traveling agents at the terminal to lure the minds of travelers and eventually rob them of their properties. The Ubungo Bus Terminal which became operational since 2001 has a vastness of over 100,000 square meters and is capable of accommodating about 600 buses at a time. The terminal has a total of 53 booking offices and over 100 transport companies in the yard. Other facilities which are found in the yard include petrol stations, hotels, bars, shops, lavatories and bathing rooms. All these are projects hired to individual groups by the government through the Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC). Statistics made available by the TABOA shows that, about 8 to 10 million people travels by buses countrywide. This is about 20-25 percent of the country’s total population.