Irregular local and foreign transportation has proliferated in Puebla. In various parts of the state capital and the metropolitan area, dozens of units, including vans and private cars, are used to offer daily trips within and outside of Puebla, without the need for their operators and managers to process a federal or state permit.
In the absence of oversight by federal and state authorities, and in the face of the attractive price offer that is more than 50 percent higher than established companies, it is common to see several vehicles providing transportation services within the state and other cities in the country in various public places in the municipalities of Puebla and San Andrés Cholula.
Many of these trips are made in units that bear private license plates, including those from other federal entities, such as Tlaxcala and the State of Mexico.
These transportation services are offered just steps away from authorized terminals, such as the Central de Autobuses de Puebla (CAPU) and the base of the ORO company, which provides trips to the south of the state and neighboring entities, such as Morelos.
Trips to Teziutlán and Oaxaca, steps away from CAPU
The parking lot of a shopping center located near CAPU, between Carmen Serdán Boulevard and 27 Norte Street, is used as an improvised terminal for several transportation units that do not have license plates authorized for these services.
From vans, which are usually Urvan and Sprinter models, to private sedan-type cars, they are lined up in the parking spaces to wait for clients interested in traveling to the interior of Puebla and other states to approach.
One of the most popular destinations for these vehicles is the municipality of Teziutlán, which is located approximately 150 kilometers away from the center of Puebla.
Trips to this area cost up to 200 pesos per person, which is 86 percent cheaper than conventional companies, which offer travel insurance by legal obligation to users.
To board this type of vehicle, it is necessary to approach one of the people who operate as ticket inspectors and transport administrators. The vehicles are most often identified because they are vans, usually white, parked with the door open. They have private license plates from federative entities such as the State of Mexico and, in addition, they are most often placed in the first parking spaces.
Given the considerable savings that traveling in this type of vehicle represents, dozens of people, including entire families and students, prefer to use these irregular services, in which they do not obtain a ticket or proof of payment. Therefore, they do not know whether or not they are protected by traveler’s insurance.
Teziutlán is not the only destination offered in this place. A few steps away, an identical van offers long-distance trips. A Sprinter-type unit with private license plates from Tlaxcala is in charge of making trips every day from Puebla to Oaxaca and vice versa.
In this case, the unit provides daily trips during the day, offering as a destination a private address in the central area of Oaxaca, about three blocks from the main square of that city.
Traveling in this irregular unit costs 330 pesos, whose rate is between 70 and 57 percent cheaper than the bus lines that offer this service in the CAPU.
On the other hand, in the same parking spaces a series of private vehicles wait for travelers interested in traveling to the interior of Puebla or nearby states to approach.
Although the parking lot operates as an improvised passenger terminal, these transportation services do not have an established location where users can wait for their trips, or use a bathroom, as required by federal laws on the matter.
The existence of improvised stops where irregular units offer trips without complying with the law is not exclusive to the municipality of Puebla. In San Andrés Cholula, very close to the access to the toll booth towards Atlixco and the Lomas de Angelópolis subdivision, several vehicles do the same.
Dozens of private drivers are getting rich in this area by making round trips between this point and the municipalities of Atlixco and Izúcar de Matamoros, in the south of the state. There are also units that travel to the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos. All of this in vehicles without federal registration and without signs or verifiable corporate name.
On a gas station located on Via Atlixcáyotl, a few meters from the Oro brand bus terminal, an improvised base, consisting of a tarp and some plastic chairs, serves as a taxi terminal that the people who manage these services call “colectivos.”
These are private vans and cars, most of which have license plates from Puebla and Tlaxcala, which offer this type of journey.
To the municipality of Izúcar de Matamoros the fare is 80 pesos, while to Atlixco it costs 35 pesos. Each unit leaves with between five and six passengers, which represents an excess of the physical capacity of the cars, which are usually for four people, plus the driver.
Although in this same place an advertisement printed on a large banner – placed by the authorized bus lines – warns of messages such as “do not risk your life, it seems the same but it is not”, or “travel safely with insurance”, dozens of people choose to travel under these conditions.
In this case, the preference for irregular services is explained by two main reasons. One is that the prices are slightly cheaper than with the brands authorized by the federal authority. However, for many the main reason is the speed with which these units leave and arrive at the destination. That is, the runs in these units are more frequent.
Some of the vans that participate in these irregular trips have the license plates covered on the top and bottom, that is, where the distinctive signs referring to the federative entity or the type of license plate to which they belong are shown. Only the configuration of letters and numbers is shown. However, this coincides with the private license plates.
According to the Transportation Law of the state of Puebla, a transportation service that requires special permits in the entity is one that “serves to satisfy mobility needs through the transfer of people and goods.”
Article 14 of said regulations establishes the types of transportation that can operate with special concessions in the state. These range from urban and intercity transportation to mixed transportation of passengers and goods, that is, that also offer package delivery.
The state regulations also state that units intended for the transportation of passengers must be duly registered in the State Transportation Registry. This implies that they must carry license plates and specific stickers for this use.
In addition, according to article 15, these units must have authorized rates, a system for receiving and handling complaints, as well as a visible card with data on the unit and the driver, aspects that are almost entirely omitted in this type of vehicle.
On the other hand, and for the specific case of transportation services between Puebla and other federal entities, the Law of Roads, Bridges and Federal Auto Transport, and the Regulation of Federal Auto Transport and Auxiliary Services require the carrying of special plates for units that make trips with these characteristics.
These plates are only obtained when the vehicles are registered in the Federal Auto Transport registry of the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) of the Government of Mexico. This is possible once the individuals or corporations prove their legal personality and meet a series of requirements to offer such trips.
Finally, it should be remembered that neither the SICT nor the Secretariat of Mobility and Transport (SMT) of Puebla have made comments on the existence of visibly irregular transfer services between the state capital and other municipalities of the entity and the country.
Source: elsoldepuebla
