Chief Executive Officer of HM Boafo Shuttle services, Adri Hopson, has revealed plans of his team to negotiate with the management of the University of Ghana to add shuttle fares to the hall fees paid by the University of Ghana Enterprise Limited residents.
According to Mr. Hopson, if the shuttle fares are added to the hall fees paid by the UGEL residents, it would be a great opportunity to subsidize the shuttle fares.
He added that it would be cheaper for students since they would be compelled to pay for the whole semester.
“There is no money in the system so we are thinking that if each student of the diaspora halls spends Ghc 4.00 a day on transport, why don’t they pay on a semester basis where it will be compulsory for anybody in the diaspora halls so that they pay something meagre as part of their hall fees. So for example, if in a day you pay Ghc 4.00 cedis on transport, and we have 20 schooling days in a month, that means you are spending Gh 80.00 cedis, but if all the residents pay by adding it to their hall fees, they can pay about Gh 40.00 cedis for the whole semester because everybody is compelled to pay whether you board the bus or not”, He said on Campus Exclusive.
Further speaking to UniversNews, some students also raised concerns regarding the inconveniences associated with boarding the shuttles.
They stated that, among other things, standing in the buses mostly led to overcrowding and discomfort.
“The problem I have with boarding the shuttle is that even when you leave your hall early, you have to pay your fare, enter the bus and wait for other people to join the bus for it to be full before it moves so by the time you realize, you would be late for your lectures. Also, in the afternoon, you get to the bus stops and the buses are nowhere to be found.”
“At times, the shuttles can get [congested] that you have to stand and this overcrowding in the buses…it’s so uncomfortable.”
“The shuttle services are quite effective but the only problem is the fact that the buses are mostly overcrowded and there’s little or no space to position oneself appropriately, so they should work on that.”
Reacting to this, Adri Hopson explained that the buses usually have to be filled beyond their capacity with some students standing in order to cut costs and ascertain profitability for the HM shuttle services company.
“The main reason is these buses use fuel. For example, if the bus moves from the diaspora all the way round to the business school and then to the School of Languages back to the diaspora, we use about Ghc 120.00 cedis of fuel, meanwhile we charge each student Ghc 2.00 cedis. We have 44 seats so if we go only one round with everybody sitting comfortably, we lose Ghc 40.00 cedis by getting only Ghc 88.00 cedis. We don’t want to increase the fare because if we do, students cannot pay. As of now, we are having challenges with patronage because some students think they cannot pay.” he added.
