By JOHN SAKALA
The Road Transport and Safety Agency has granted a partial re-instatement of the Road Service Licence (RSL) for Beta Build Hardware and Electronics trading as Scorpion Bus Services.
The partial re-instatement of the RSL is with effect from Sunday, June 30, 2019.
The partial re-instatement of the operator’s Licence was arrived at after Scorpion Bus Services met part of the conditions set by RTSA to uplift the road safety profile the particular operator.
The Agency further conducted a re-test on all drivers and roadworthiness inspectionson all buses, pursuant to sections 68 and 126 of the Road Traffic Act No.11 of 2002, including the installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) on the entire fleet of vehicles as means of monitoring the speed at which the buses are moving.
Furthermore, the firm with the guidance of the RTSA has put in place a Workplace
Road Safety Fleet Management Policy in order to improve operations of the company in respect to road safety.
Thus, the Agency is of the view that the operator has met the minimum threshold under the Fleet Safety Management Guidelines and is therefore allowing the company to resume operations.
However, the partial re-instatement of the RSL is only in respect of five (05) buses that have so far passed the roadworthiness inspection tests and have been installed with the GPS, as well as the eight (08) drivers who passed the driving re-tests.
Thus, the company will not be permitted to use any vehicles or drivers that are not authorized.
RTSA will revoke the RSL should they be found using an unauthorized vehicle or driver on the road.
On May 17, 2019, RTSA suspended the Operator’s Licence for Scorpion Bus Services for violating the terms and conditions upon which the operator’s licence was granted for employing and allowing an unlicensed driver to operate a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) thereby posing serious danger to the travelling public and causing a road traffic
crash along the Chingola – Solwezi road on April 17, 2019 around 19:20 hours were 14 people died and 16 injured.
This is according to the media statement by RTSA Head of Public Relations Fredrick Mubanga.
