AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Land Transport Regulatory Authority (LATRA) has officially launched E-ticketing system for upcountry buses.
Adressing journalists yesterday, Latra director general Gilliard Ngewe in the beginning those with mobile phones will be using their phones to get electronic tickets.
According to Ngewe reaching the stage was not a simple matter because there are people who went to court to challenge the system.
Ngewe said a huge number of upcountry buses have been connected with the system and passengers can now buy the tickets via the system.
“We decided that it should reach a point where bus owners should conduct their businesses freely in which they can invest money into the sector and then make profits,” he said.
The government announced last year that it would introduce electronic ticketing as a way of preventing unwarranted fare hikes during the festive season and also in efforts to help the Tanzanians.
Ngewe said through the new system, one can buy a ticket for a relative and save time which was lost before the system was introduced..
He said the system is not new to Tanzania because it is also being used in developed countries which also helps to have enough data on the number of passengers.
For his part, LATRA board chairman Henry Bantu said in the past bus companies were collapsing because there was no proper administration systems.
He added that Latra will not sit down and watch bus companies collapsing because there is a new system to oversee the sector.
“Latra will not allow bus companies collapse, but we should also be ready to change because our colleagues have done it long time ago,” he said.
Ngewe said launching of the system was a move to permanently end problems of hiking fares as well as end syndicates which have been benefiting from the sector illegally.
