Brown says he will see independent truckers in court!

[Tha_Tranzporter]

Well... a meeting has been arranged between the Association and Nelson Bascome, Derrick Burgess. Once again the Minister who used his discretion to move the Goal Posts refuses to take responsibilty.
Dennis Corriea was on Everests show earlier this week... defending himself... that he spends thousands on Bermuda charities... sponsored the televising of Dame Lois Brown Evans funeral... has spent 1.1 million on General Truckers in a year (the contracts he has been working on.. TCD, Dockyard cruise ship dock etc. equal out to over 70 million) blah, blah, blah. He never addressed the point. He says he has permission to use the TT Dumpsters in the way he does.. obviously if he does and the law say different the Minister has allowed it. I called in and asked him if he had permission to run this truck on the road with no tailgate (very dangerous and illegal)





He said he has been given permission by the Gov. (must be the Minister) to run this truck on the road!
look at the load in it... wouldn't take much of a hill for something to roll out. If I ran my truck this way I would be stopped and fined untill I replace my tailgate. This sort of proves my point.. there is a double standard in effect here. Friends and Family or Ewart... and the rest of us.

[Renaissance Man]

Different rules for us plebs, mate.

Maybe you could get your wife to run for the PLP? 

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
George Orwell - Animal Farm

You just have to keep on being the one who follows the law. Eventually, one would hope, the law breakers will get stopped.

BTW, HOW can you listen to the talk shows? I would end up breaking the radio over some of the stupidity that goes on there. I see enough stupidity every day without actively searching it out. Mix 106 or Power 95 for me. KJAZ sometimes too.

[SevenT]

   I will not make any deals with you. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own....

   Patrick McGoohan - The Prisoner

[Buddha Bunny]

But No. 6...  it's clear you don't understand...

[Tha_Tranzporter]

Article from the Bermuda Sun

10/24/2008 11:24:00 AM   
Dr. Brown - uphold the law on trucking!
The Government is allowing tractor trailers to operate in breach of the law by carrying loads normally specified for Bermuda's small truckers.

The situation has proliferated because the Transport Minister has routinely allowed tractor trailers connected to government building projects to carry construction aggregate, even though it is against the law.

The practice has sidelined the island's small truckers, depriving them of work and hurting their businesses. Their complaints to Government have been ignored or turned aside.

This is an extraordinary example of the PLP Government favouring big business over small business, and an indication of how much they have lost their way when it comes to the protecting the interests of working men and women.

We call on the Minister to enforce the law as it is written and to stop his practice of allowing big business to squeeze out small truckers.

Truckers take issue with a provision in the Motor Car Act that says tractor trailers can operate with the approval of the Minister to carry loads "which may not be safely carried on a truck..."

They maintain that the Minister is breaking the law because the construction aggregate being carried by tractor trailers is the kind of load that can be "safely carried" on their trucks. Indeed, the trucking of construction aggregate is a staple of their business.

Power of discretion

Small truckers began registering their concerns after numerous sightings of tractor trailers carrying construction aggregate.

The Government replied that the Minister has the power of discretion - the power to decide - under the Motor Car Act to "exercise a general supervision and control over matters concerning or connected with the use of motor cars in Bermuda..."

This is a grossly misleading interpretation of the Minister's power, giving him in effect the authority to do as he pleases. It is misleading because it does not recognize the provisions in the Motor Car Act that were specifically designed to guide the Minister's actions in this matter.

Sidestepping explicit restrictions on what tractor trailers can carry - in this instance "loads which may not be safely carried on a truck" - in order to pass on more work to tractor trailers owned by big companies working government projects is illegal.

The truckers responded to the Government's interpretation of the Act by asking transport authorities to advise them if the Motor Car Act had been changed to allow tractor trailers to operate in the "same capacity" as trucks, and to see the change in writing.

We can say categorically that the Act has not been changed to allow tractor trailers to carry ordinary aggregate and, as long as the Minister allows that practice to continue, he is aiding in breaking the law.

For the sake of hard-working truckers, we urge the Minister to stop the abuse and do the right thing.

Shawn Crockwell MP is the United Bermuda Party Shadow Minister for Transportation



What more can I say??

[Mysty]

So "they" thought that this would just go away.  Well, it hasn't!  At 8:45 am this morning on George's Bay Road, leaving the BLDC compound, near the 'Base Gate,' I followed a huge blue tractor-trailer rig carrying loose sand turn onto the Main Road heading to Dockyard, further it was not covered.  License #DXT06TP.  So I guess the so-called TCD letter to 'offending operators' has done little for the  general trucker on the Island, again proving that the plp gumbymint could give a sweet shit about the 'small man.'  But, did we seriously think that the "big boys" would heed a little 'ol letter from little 'ol TCD...?  Of course not!  They should have been arrested for breaking the freaking law!!  It was just a stalling tactic, though... hoping all this would disappear in time. 

So, at least, Correia is continuing to break the law.  But why?  All you gotta do is look for THE MONEY!!  And here's how they did/do it:  The Dockyard cruise ship terminal bid was undoubtedly estimated on using general truckers to haul material like sand and fill.  BUT... by using huge trucks that move 5 times as much material as general truckers can, Correia saves at least 75% of the trucking budget, maybe more.  Bastards.  Three guesses where that excess cash went to (and the first two don't count)....
 

[Tha_Tranzporter]

Well.... I was reliably informed (can anyone confirm this as I didn't see the beginning of the ZBM News Tonight) that the Premier has fired the final nail in the coffin of the General Independent Truckers of Bermuda.

http://www.gov.bm/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_1088_253_475_43/http%3B/ptpublisher.gov.bm%3B7087/publishedcontent/publish/ministry_of_tourism_and_transport/transport_control_department/dept___tcd___publications/articles/rental_truck_guidelines_0.pdf

The above PDF. are the Guidlines for starting up a Rental Truck Business... now I found this amendment to the Motorcar act 1951 about a year ago.. it was added to the act maybe 2 years ago. It states that a person can start a Rental Truck Company.... they can apply to TCD for permission and pay a one time $100,000 fee for unlimited trucks (at the ministers discretion and we all know how well that currently works) that the general public can rent. Now these are Light and Intermidiate trucks which are half the size of mine but the killer is that General Truckers have to pay $85,000 per permit and submit an application for each. I also currently pay TCD $2200 per year to license each truck ( I have two)... I'm sure that the per year permit fee for the rental trucks will be much lower... around $300 per year like minibuses.
   If a stink was made about this we would most likely be told that the trucks are smaller and don't compete with us... Bullshit. If you could pay say $300 per day to rent an Intermidate truck wouldn't you rather do that than pay me $700 for the day? Even though I can carry twice the payload you could just make more trips as you have it for the day.
   He annonced this on the news tonight... IMHO there must be some member of the Brown Friends & Family Plan that is lined up to start this business. Just as with the Limos when we heard about the legislation they where already here well... same deal here. Why else wait 2 years after the law was passed?

[Buddha Bunny]

And yet many of those guys voted for that asshole and his party you bet!!!   

[mrsbda]

I have been told, and maybe there are other posters who know more about this, that Brown is involved in the loaner car set up, shareholder/partner not sure.   As I said in a post on Wookies Soapbox, loaner cars/rental trucks - I see a connection here!

[SevenT]

He annonced this on the news tonight... IMHO there must be some member of the Brown Friends & Family Plan that is lined up to start this business. Just as with the Limos when we heard about the legislation they where already here well... same deal here. Why else wait 2 years after the law was passed?

Oh yeah, that's his style all right... anyone who has taken a peek at http://www.betbermuda.com/ can see that Poppa Doc cares not a jot that an Air Arrivals Flash Report, released along with tourism statistics on Monday, stated: "Two-thirds of visitors indicate that if a casino was available in Bermuda, they would definitely not (41 percent) or probably not (24 percent) visit the site to gamble. More than half consider a casino would make Bermuda less appealing to them as a vacation destination..."  it is a "done-deal" as far as he is concerned - why bother listening to a survey that he didn't pass on some of the taxpayer's money to one of his consultant-friends for... he's already told them what to print!

El Dictaro has got it all safely mapped out like I've said countless times before... Casinos and on-line gambling just part of the bie's great scheme to share the wealth... amongst his chums only!


7T