Transport Authority Reaches Out Through ‘Petra’s Tent’

The Transport Authority (TA) kicked off its strategic compliance initiative for the month of June, dubbed ‘Petra’s Tent’, on Wednesday, June 16 in downtown Kingston.

In an interview with JIS News, Corporate Communications Manager at the TA, Petra-Kene Williams, explained that Petra’s Tent was born out of the Authority’s desire to increase compliance in specific areas across the island.

“The initiative pulls a team of professionals from within the Transport Authority and they venture into a particular location and provide services to the community,” Miss Williams explained, adding that the team comprises persons from the licensing, customer service and operations departments.

“These persons go out into the community on a scheduled basis and provide a kind of one-stop shop of Transport Authority services. Our mobile office units go out into different areas, so for the month of June we have some Petra’s Tent Initiatives,” she said.

“Today we are in downtown Kingston at the South Parade Parking Lot across from the Pearnel Charles Arcade,” the Corporate Communications Manager said.

Miss Williams explained that on Wednesday, June 23, the team will be in Old Harbour at the Old Harbour Taxi Association, in the vicinity of the police station, and at Spencer James Drive, in Half-Way Tree on Wednesday, June 30.

“Persons can come out if they want to apply for a road licence, whether a commercial carriage licence or a public passenger vehicle road licence. They can submit their applications there,” the Corporate Communications Manager noted.

She stressed that the TA does not collect cash at any of its facilities and advises that persons should make their payment either at Paymaster or Bill Express or use their debit or credit cards at the mobile units.

Miss Williams pointed out that the Petra’s Tent initiative is not new.

“It started out in 2016 and we reviewed compliance rates across each parish and we recognised that there were communities in some parishes that had lower compliance rates in terms of road licence and badges, and we reached out to those communities,” she explained.

The Corporate Communications Manager said that the initiative has evolved and now provides badge application services as well as demonstration of the online application system.