The red minivan cooperative will be revising its home-to-work shuttle service because not enough passengers are booking regular trips to Valletta, making it unfeasible.
As from September 1, the cooperative will no longer accept transport bookings from people working in Valletta on an individual basis. It would only accept group bookings and the cost of a trip would “probably increase slightly”, cooperative chairman Emanuel Falzon said.
On a positive note, the cooperative will be extending its home-to-work connect service beyond Valletta if there is group booking for such venues.
The cooperative ran the park-and-ride shuttle, between Blata l-Bajda and Valletta, for the past four years. On July 3, Arriva took over as public transport operator and even started running the park-and-ride service.
In reaction, the cooperative launched the home-to-work connect service to keep its business afloat. It offered trips from any destination in Malta to the capital at the cost of less than €1 per journey. But two months down the line the cooperative is finding that the service is not feasible.
“We tried hard to offer a good service and keep the prices as low as possible but found it could not last much longer at those prices... We did not always have the amount of passengers needed to cover the costs of the trip and we were losing money. As chairman, I cannot allow the cooperative, which has been operating for the past 20 years, to lose money every day,” Mr Falzon said when contacted.
He insisted that the service was not being closed down but was being revised to offer group packages that were not limited to Valletta. Passengers would probably have to pay slightly more than the current system but, in return, get peace of mind and they do not have to use their cars either. On the other hand, minivan drivers had a guaranteed job, he said.
Mr Falzon said some groups had already contacted the cooperative. These were not limited to people headed to work. For example, an agreement had been reached with the Żejtun local council to take elderly people to hospital when required.
He explained that members of a group did not have to be from the same locality but it was advisable that they lived relatively close. Each minivan can take 14 passengers but Mr Falzon encouraged smaller groups, of even seven people, to contact the cooperative if interested.
The cooperative posted a message on its website www.maltacoop.com explaining the planned changes to clients. The cooperative can be reached by e-mail on info@maltacoop.com or by phone on 2148 0707.