Wi-Fi on JUTC Buses in September 2015 - How extended 2015 Summer Promotion will increase revenue by JA$4 million daily

“We do have plans ….. We will be rolling out 452 buses. Effective Monday morning, we will be rolling out 452 buses. We were at 440, so we have up it to 452. If we have an increase, then there will be routes that will be having a few more buses. Let's put it this way: the major routes that carry the bulk of passengers, particularly the trunk routes, will be getting more units”

JUTC's Marketing Manager Clinton Clarke speaking about their plans to put more buses on the roads for back-to-school

The JUTC (Jamaica Urban Transit Company) may soon be rolling out buses that come with built in Wi-Fi on Monday September 7^th 2015.

This as they've acquired some new buses with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities as reported in the article “Packed For School”, published Sunday September 6, 2015 by Kawain Fearon, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The JUTC previous had 444 buses but they've since upped that number to 452.

That means there is the possibility that the JUTC buses may be all upgraded to have Wi-Fi built in as I'd long predicted would help get the sex-crazed children to take the buses in my blog article entitled “Unruly High School Students Making out and having sex in the JUTC Half-Way-Tree Transport Center - How wi-Fi in Buses can lead to Solar Power, LPG and the SmarterCard Cashless System”.

Ok so how will this be possible? With a little 4G Broadband Help from Digicel!

Wi-Fi on JUTC Buses - How Wi-Fi Routers in the Buses and Google Transit will increase travellers

This can be done simply by installing Wi-Fi Routers in the Buses that receive 3G Internet and convert it into Wi-Fi, for which the students pay to get access to any bus, to quote JUTC's Marketing Manager Clinton Clarke: “Yes, we are in dialogue with a provider of the service and in short order we will have Wi-Fi on the buses. We are going with all the buses”.

It might seem strange to want to use Wi-Fi service in a bus, but considering the fact that a typical journey doesn’t last much longer than an hour and not everyone will have a Data Service. So many commuters will see it as a great way to save on your Megabytes while catching up on their Messaging and Social Media alerts.

The 3G Internet will most likely with the help of a local Telecom Provider Digicel and will most likely by their 4G Broadband product, which is really WiMaX.

It's also a great complement to the recent addition of JUTC routes to Google Transit, allowing anyone with the Google Maps app on their Android smartphone to find a bus based on the route they plan to take as explained in my blog article entitled “JUTC Google Transit from UWI Computer Science Department - Why Google Maps is the next step towards an AVL”.

So is this rollout of services any better than September 2014? In a nutshell yes!

JUTC continued 2015 Summer Promotion - Seeking JA$4 million daily in additional revenue

This is a big improvement from last year when they increased the fare and also rolled out the SmarterCard system as reported in my blog article entitled “JUTC SmarterCard Rollout and Fare Hike Postponed – Why I'll be boycotting JUTC Buses anyway as they're not trying to Save Money”. 

Those fares increases back then, after much protest, were as follows:

1.      JA$120 for Adults from JA$100, an increase of 20%

2.      JA$30 for Children and disabled from JA$20, an increase of 50%

3.      JA$60 for Senior Citizens from JA$20, an increase of 200%

JUTC is apparently trying to continue the positive gains they'd experienced over the Summer with their 2015 Summer Promotion in a bid that had rolled out on Sunday July 5^th 2015 as reported in the “JUTC Summer Fare Deal Starts Today”, published Sunday July 5, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.

That 2015 Summer Promotion was aimed at getting some 40,000 additional riders to generate some JA$4 million daily in additional revenue as reported by the horses’ mouth, the Jamaica Information Service in the article “JUTC Could Earn $4 Million Daily from Summer Promotion”, published July 15, 2015 By Chad Bryan, The Jamaica Information Service. 

The promotion, which ended on Sunday August 29^th 2015, resulted in adult passengers being reduced to $100 from $120.

Still no word on the SmarterCard Initiative - PAMS may soon be improving the HWT Transport Center

No indications that the promotions were a success.

But they’ve planned to extend the 2015 Summer Promotion up until Saturday October 31^st 2015, an indication that it’s gaining some momentum, to quote JUTC's Marketing Manager Clinton Clarke: “The feedback we get is that it is timely and it is well appreciated. We bring it to the beginning of the school year, so we thought that it would have been very good to extend it, because it would help in a sense with the transportation burden or the overall burden of cost”.

This is a stark reversal to the planned introduction of higher rates back in September 2014 along with the SmarterCard System that was suppose to reduce theft as noted in my blog article entitled “JUTC rolls out SmarterCard September 2014 - How JA$20 allows Unruly sex-crazed High School Children and Elderly to Travel and reduce Theft”.

The JUTC plans to keep up the promotion until Saturday October 31^st 2015 is aimed at regular customers, not those taking the Express Service to quote JUTC's Marketing Manager Clinton Clarke: “What I can tell you is that we have seen an increase in the number of adult passengers that ride the JUTC buses. We are going up to October 31 and then after that we will speak to the public on what else we will be doing”.

Hopefully, some of those buses are indeed Wi-Fi as I'd long predicted. Also the should improve the SmarterCard offering, making it mandatory as well as finally roll out their own AVL (Automatic Vehicle Locator) as explained in my blog article entitled “JUTC's AVL and Chaos on Back to School Day – How JUTC's Automatic Vehicle Locator may placate Smartphone toting Commuters who ask Are we There Yet”.

Combined with possible improvement by PAMS (Port Authority Management Services Limited) as it relates to the food offering and Wi-Fi in the Half-Way-Tree Transport Center as predicted in my blog article entitled “PAMS to debut GOJ branded Food Court in Half-Way-Tree Transport Center - Making revenue from Unruly smartphone toting High School students via Cooked Food and JA$100 a week Wi-Fi Internet”, JUTC might finally start making profit from all of its moving parts!