The cabinet announced on Tuesday 15 February that the mouth mask obligation in coach transport will continue to apply. A strange decision for the sector, about which it was also not consulted. It ensures that the industry cannot recover from the enormous corona losses, while the measures are relaxed everywhere in the Netherlands and the coach transport is extremely safe. Travelers stay away as long as the mask obligation remains in the coach.
Private bus transport (the legal term for coach transport) is wrongly lumped together with public transport and the aviation industry. Coach operators often transport fixed groups whose individual members know each other well, such as classmates (during a school trip or excursion), sports teams to an away game or associations when visiting a museum. When you know each other, you look out for each other. Due to that social component alone, the chance of infections is much smaller than in anonymous public transport, in anonymous aviation or at a large-scale event. In addition, with composite groups, entrepreneurs can continue to do a health check in advance or continue to ask travelers to do a self-test before boarding the bus, so that the risks are very small.
In addition, the ventilation in a coach is equal to or better than that of various indoor locations, where the mouth mask obligation has already largely expired. The air exchange capacity of the bus air conditioning is high and there is also the option of completely airing the bus in the meantime.
“The mouth mask obligation ensures that the customer sees our buses as unsafe, while the entrepreneurs have everything in order. Customers stay away and point to the mouth caps, as the companies already noticed last summer. It makes it impossible for entrepreneurs to keep their pants on themselves, while the rest of society opens up. All understanding, therefore, when entrepreneurs decide to be a little looser with the mouth cap obligation."
Sector lost 63% of turnover during corona and is tired of restrictions
The coach sector has been hit hard by the corona crisis. Due to travel restrictions at home and abroad, the demand for transport fell dramatically. Events were cancelled, schools were closed for long periods. Support rides for public transport were not necessary. Passengers also looked out of the woods for day trips. The result of all this: entrepreneurs had significant turnover losses. The average loss of turnover for the industry over the corona period was more than 63%. Since bus companies are capital-intensive, many entrepreneurs are now open to the challenge.
Earlier in the corona crisis, entrepreneurs did understand the measures, no matter how much the sector suffered and how bad the support measures introduced at the same time also turned out to be the sector. Eckhardt about this: 'The companies are looking forward to the normal bustle of the coach season in the spring, but due to the continued existence of the mask obligation, there is now the dramatic prospect that they will not be able to fully undertake again in the future. The government's argument is very wrong. The only thing that shows is that people actually have very little insight into how coach transport works and what role it plays in the mobility of large groups of Dutch people. In that case, we can only show understanding for entrepreneurs who consider the wishes of customers more important than the mask obligation. I can understand when they take matters into their own hands and disobey a little, until the government realizes that this is a dead end. It goes without saying that I call on the cabinet to also cancel the mask obligation in coaches as soon as possible, following the relaxation in almost all sectors."