by CARLOS ATWELL

PRESIDENT OF THE ZR association, Frank Forde, has come out in condemnation of the reckless driving and loud music of public service vehicle (PSV) drivers.

He said he will be looking to the present Democratic Labour Party Government to finally address someof his concerns.

"I hope we can have a good understanding with Government and the Minister of Transport and Works [John Boyce] to get things straightened out," he said in an interview yesterday.

One of those "things" he identified was the loud music still frequently played by ZR operators, which he said could be solved by taking out the audio enhancements causing the problem.

"Taking out the radios would be a problem as they are necessary, especially now with things like earthquakes and other disasters happening, but take out the boosters, the equalisers and the amplifiers. It should not be hard for a transport inspector to check the vehicles for those things and have them removed," he said.

Another problem was the reckless driving displayed by some operators, which Forde said could be remediedby stiffer penalties.

"I realise there are lawless people in the ZR sector and I know there are people who drive as they like. Take away their licence for a length of time, three to four years, because when you have a situation when someone dies because of an accident involving a PSV, it is not just that one person, you damage a whole family.

"This is a serious thing and it doesn't help to read in the papers the person had a lot of prior convictions, youhave to deal with it beforehand," he said.

Forde said there were also some other issues which needed attention.

"We need to have duty free vehicles and to get the terminal, where the old Queen's College building was, completed. It is not fair we pay so much
taxes and still get ignored," he said.

Forde said that while they did have a relationship with the former minister [Gline Clarke], nothing had been done; things had not changed in the last 14 years.

"I hope someone listens to us this year so we can get things worked out. The public needs a better transport service because they are the most important," he said.