BY YAMIKANI YAPUWA
The Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) Public Relations Officer, Ida Nkolimbo said its bus services will resume on Friday the February 14, 2020, after putting some safety measures to ensure the safety of passengers.
Nkolimbo told Malawi News Agency (Mana) on Wednesday the bus would resume after observations from the re-assessment and re-evaluation of the safety of the buses and the driver’s skill set have shown the buses are fit for road and drivers are competent.
“Earlier on, management thought it wise to withdraw the service with the aim of re-evaluating the safety environment of the buses following the accident.
“To thoroughly address the safety issues, management engaged various stakeholders that included the Road Traffic Directorate to re-assess the safety of the buses and re-evaluate the driver’s skill set.
“All the bus drivers compete on the roads, but only requiring refresher course on managing the new technology of the buses and other elements which are always important for passenger vehicles,” said Nkolimbo.
Nkolimbo said the corporation has so far installed speed governors, real time trackers as well as making provisions for refresher courses to drivers as measures to promote the safety of passengers.
“We have installed speed governors to a speed of 100 Km per hour limit as well as real time trackers to give the operations manager alerts on the bus proceedings on the road.
“Further, our drivers were placed on a refresher course,” said Nkolimbo.
Meanwhile, MPC has hailed its customers and all the key stakeholders for exercising patience when the corporation took a tough but prudent decision to suspend the buses to ensure that customers’ safety.
On January 20, MPC temporarily withdrew Post Bus Services to enable the corporation re-run safety checks on the buses and the drivers after recording two accidents since its launch.
