During the current PRD government, the authorities that govern the routes for urban transport lines, both for cars and buses, issued 125 permits to allow the beneficiaries a monopoly on passenger service along the route. In turn, these permit-holders have charged drivers and owners as much as RD$1 million to run their vehicles on their particular routes. The ownership of the route is a fast-track to wealth and the only requirement is to have close ties to the political party in power and the drivers? unions.
In spite of the fact that the Planning Department at the OTTT (Land Transit Technical Office) is in charge of assigning the routes for passenger service, it has no control as to how much the ?owners? of the route may charge the vehicle operators.
As reported in El Caribe, Augusto Perez Sanchez, a planning official for the OTTT, told reporters that ?a bus owner who wants to work on the Santo Domingo?Higuey route has to pay as much as RD$1 million to the syndicate.? Some inter-urban routes charge as much as RD$100,000 to access the routes. As a sidebar, Perez Sanchez said that the syndicate only pays the OTTT RD$500 a year for each bus under its control.
The existence of the syndicates undoubtedly has its pros and cons. The associated drivers are ?guaranteed? that no ?pirates? will compete with them for passengers. The drivers are fairly well guaranteed a client base, because the OTTT conducts feasibility studies on the routes in question. And, finally, the syndicate drivers are the first in line when government renovation programs, such as the generous Plan Renove, come along.
On the other hand, the monopoly does limit participation, and the OTTT must expend a large sum of money to carry out their studies. Negative, too, is the violence against the non-syndicated drivers who covet the off-limits routes. In a more general way, the routes are taking over public property to establish their bases, and the streets have become crowded with passengers and vehicles trying to find space. One example in Santo Domingo is the corner of Nicolas de Ovando and Maximo Gomez. In Santiago, the area around the Parque de los Chachases and the corner of Argentina and Estrella Sadhala are typical of the chaos caused by the syndicates.