Withdrawal of bus fee collectors from the city of BH and region leave seriously consequences

There is a lack of perspective on the uncertain future of this working class

By Ester Pinheiro

At 5:45 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, May 2017, when walking along a long street called Che Guevara, I arrived at the final-stop of the buses 1740, 1730, 001B and 001C of the metropolitan region of the city of Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. It was the final bus stop for drivers who did not have a chance to revolutionize.

They were all gathered in a shelter that had a small window and two doors, one leaded to a small room and the other to a bathroom. There were many empty cups of coffee and cigarette smoke on the table. It was a dirty and crowded place with drivers, who are also bus fee collectors. It was a quite polluted atmosphere: the buzzer sound, the loud beep of buses’ back command, people running to catch the bus. That day was cold, just like in fall season, but instead of leaves, cigarettes were falling to the ground.

Yellow and orange large buses came and went in every minute and depending on the time of the day they were even used as a surfboard, where the air intake on the roof was an opening for vandalism and danger. Wearing light blue shirt and jeans with older washing, drivers wrapped their belts around their waist like cowboys before setting off for a duel.

That fight, although, was against the routine of a driver and also of a fee collector, which does not kill, but enslave. The brightness in their foreheads reflected the difficult reality in which they lived. “The powerful can kill one, two or three roses, but they will never be able to stop the whole spring,” said Che Guevara, the one imitated by the name of the street that might justify the smile of this working class that always delights.

In a parked 1740 bus, were three drivers: José Custódio, Pedro Rodrigues and Geraldo Belloti, the only ones who decided to talk about the withdrawal of fee collectors in buses by the city hall and its consequences. According to the Transport and Transit Authority (Transcon), which is the regulator of buses in the city of Contagem, 298 of the urban transports managed by them, 37% do not own a fee collector.

In the capital of BH the number is even lower, from the 3,057 vehicles that make up the fleet, 21.6% do not have a collector according to the Union of Passenger Transport Companies of Belo Horizonte (SetraBH). The removal of these workers occurred after approval of the law suggested by councilman Autair Gomes from the PSC Party.

Drivers and fee collectors

José Custódio, 54, is a bus driver and now he is also a fee collector. According to him, the withdrawal of fee collectors is not optional; it was done as if this occupation no longer existed. “The work got heavy, driving and charging is not easy: opening and closing doors, giving change and paying attention on the traffic. There has never been an accident with me because of this, but with my colleagues, I have already seen.”

According to the driver, the safety that was already precarious in the major city of the state has become something banal, as it is a daily reality of drivers. “There is no more fee collector, robbers jump the ratchet and steal the bud and other people,” he says.

A week before this report in the morning, near the station of the Eldorado subway I had a negative experience in the bus of line 1730 of the metropolitan region of BH. I was pressed in the middle door of the vehicle when I was getting off, by the rubber surround it, it was dirty with greasy. My clothes were stained; my body was scratched and sore. I screamed and asked the driver to open the door. He opened after a couple of seconds and he apologized.

Even with my aching foot, I realized that there was a clear overload of the driver’s function, because while he was opening the door, he was also giving change to someone, so he ended up activating and deactivating the middle door at the same time. For the driver Custódio accidents are inevitable, since there is no way to pay attention when performing so many functions.

In this context, City Councilman Carlos Henrique (PMN) presented a law, which requires the presence of collectors in the lines that circulate in BH on weekends and after 10 pm between Monday and Friday. However no similar change occurred in the city of Contagem.

The proposal of the municipal government of Belo Horizonte also foresaw concessionaire companies of the regulator system of buses should adopt policies to help on-board agents who lost their positions, besides programs of qualification for these professionals. This measure had also been promoted according to the bus regulator in Contagem, Transcon, although drivers did not confirm it. “We did not have any training, we did not have any course, we worked one day as fee collectors and we already had to start working for real on the other day,” says José Custódio.

A lot of people were already standing up waiting to pay the required fee or to scan their cards in the reading machine in the bus 1740, which was near the Industrial City in Contagem. Rosângela, an elderly lady, was trying to get in the bus while a line of people was trying to get in. It took almost five minutes for everyone to get on board. “It’s a disaster, the lack of fee collectors, travel delay; it’s a high stress for drivers, who end up arguing with us, old people. One of them rebuked me yesterday for the delay of getting in.” Rosângela commented frustrated.

In the city hall perspective, a few people would get buses, in this way it would be easier for drivers to first charge people and then start the journey, although the reality has been the opposite. “Oh motor (slang for driver)! Open the door”; “The roulette, please,”; “I asked to stop at the previous point, come on”. Speeches that were repeated countless times in just 30min of a route in the bus of line 1730, at noon, in the region of Itaú Power Shopping mall in Contagem. The driver Jose Custódio says that there is great public pressure, “People appeal because I sometimes forget to open the ratchet, so they blame us. Actually everything is an excuse for blaming us.”

The removal of the bus worker, when they occur, to Setra-bh are by the significant reduction in the number of users in urban lines. “The withdrawal of the on-board agent is only carried out in lines and at times when their presence is not necessary due to low utilization of vehicles, and the on-board agent can return to tservice if there is an increase in users that justifies.” SetraBH also reported that there is no study or intention to suppress the on-board agent of the collective transportation system and that the measure does not affect the quality of the service provided to the population of Belo Horizonte. But the bus company Transcon, in Contagem, did not want to pronounce it.

“They give the change without looking, they end up going in a wrong path and they can still cause accidents. It’s an eye on the street and an eye on our change, “completes Dona Emilia. SetraBH explained drivers of vehicles that circulate without the on-board agent should only start the bus after charging users who boarded and closed of the doors. And there is no possibility of charging with the vehicle in motion.

The driver José Custódio says that, in fact, the withdrawal of fee collectors delays a lot the trip, in the line of 001B that goes to the Industrial City, for example, there is a difference of 40 minutes in the route without the agent if compared with the trips that this professional is working. “At peak times it’s even worse, when we do not have change, we have to stop to change money and then delays more,” he says.

“It was a demand; we did not have a choice. They chose that and you have to adapt, “said Pedro Rodrigues and Geraldo Belloti, drivers of the 1730/1740 lines of the BH metropolitan region. They are also working in both functions. “We are going through a very complicated process because the number of accidents has increased and the number of people who jump roulette has also increased considerably,” they said.

Drivers have stated that there is no option to be chosen. “We are forced to work like this; it is an imposition, to work under these conditions.” Geraldo Belloti, driver and fee collector, thinks the conditions of his profession have worsened and the prospect for the future is pessimistic. “It has harmed us not only by physical violence, but also by moral violence. And this has scared us and stress increases. It is a devaluation of the position of driver and even more of exchanger.”

“In a totally technological era they prefer machines, they make profit, we damage. It is salary, retirement and fines for accidents in service. We wanted to say no, but that’s the reality. We want our partners back, “said the drivers-changers Pedro Rodrigues and Geraldo Belloti.

What about your future? “There’s no way to get worse.” Belloti says.

And is it possible for you to stand up and fight for your rights?

Rodrigues: “Oh, there are some hard workers here who fear losing their jobs and on the other side of the road, those who earn by that.”

But, perhaps Che Guevara was right and there, in that shelter full of cigarettes, “the skeleton of their full freedom was ready. They had nothing but substance and clothing, they will create it.”