In the wake of complaints by some commuters the Transport Authority has dispatched monitors to find public transport operators who have unlawfully hiked fares.

Commuters have complained that due to the road works taking place in the Corporate Area, and subsequent rerouting of vehicles, some bus operators, especially those who ply the Old Harbour to Kingston route, have hiked fares, claiming that passengers have to pay more because the bus has to use the toll road.

In response to the reports, the Transport Authority issued a warning to public passenger vehicle operators, for them to immediately desist from the practice of overcharging commuters.

The authority said it received complaints from the commuting public that PPV operators are insisting commuters pay more than the approved fares, particularly in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region, and Old Harbour, St. Catherine.

The Transport Authority said its operations teams will be monitoring this situation closely and operators found to be unlawfully deceiving passengers as to the fare for a journey, will be prosecuted under the road traffic regulations.

Commuters are being asked to report incidents of overcharging through the authority’s toll- free line at 1-888-991-5687 by providing the license plate numbers and the routes for the vehicles.

In the meantime, the commuting public is reminded that one of the dangers of using unlicensed public passenger vehicles is that operators often charge exorbitant fares.

This issue has been reported to be the practice in Prosper and Golden Grove in Hanover.

The authority said with the public transport liberalization pilot launched by the Transport Minister on Monday, unlicensed operators can now apply for a road license to ply a number of routes, islandwide.

In instances where there are routes that may not be covered under the pilot, the communities or operators may contact the authority so that the necessary steps can be taken to increase the availability of licensed transportation services.

The authority is therefore reminding the commuting public to use licensed public transport vehicles which display red public passenger vehicle plates and the light blue transport authority sticker on the windshield with expiration dates of 2019 and onwards.