Contact: transport@upmd.fr
🇬🇧 Press release
Dear Parents,
Historically, and for more than 10 years now, the UPMD, the parents’ association of LFIDuras, has been involved in the school transport activity with the aim of providing collective transport (not paid for by the school or the French authorities) and controlling transport prices, for the benefit of all families.
Without this selfless investment, the transport service we know would simply not exist.
In recent years, at the recurring request of all parents, the UPMD has been working to reduce transport costs as much as possible, while maintaining an optimal quality of service.
Within this framework and by means of a call for tenders, the UPMD chooses the best possible carrier every three years for the benefit of parents.
In accordance with a moral agreement, called “partnership agreement”, signed with the carrier, the UPMD :
- coordinates transport registrations
- works with the provider to ensure the best possible level of service and safety for your children
With the latest tender for the period 2020-2023, the UPMD has obtained:
- A saving of 9,000,000 vnd compared to the old tariff
- An increase in the number of bus stops and routes
- Improved quality of service (service, safety, new buses, etc)
And the creation and free provision of the “Xebus Parent” application, thanks to a parent.
However, following the serious economic consequences caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – which led to the very long closure of the LFI Marguerite Duras – the arrangements initially foreseen in our partnership with SBS seem to be no longer feasible. This is despite numerous dialogues and all the efforts made by the UPMD.
For your information, at the request of the UPMD, an emergency meeting was held on 31 December with SBS to understand the situation.
SBS told us that “it has researched all possible solutions and that only a single annual fee of 10,500,000 VND/child for the rest of the school year would allow them to save the activity and continue running the service under good conditions. From now on, this single fare is applied to all those who take the bus since the last week of December as well as for those who should be able to return to school after the Tet holidays”.
UPMD is against this measure, recalled the terms of the call for tenders, the tariff and contractual provisions, strongly condemned their non-compliance and asked for the increase to be postponed to 2022-23 in order to respect the commitments made. But to no avail.
In this delicate situation, and knowing that there is no ideal solution, the UPMD Board would like to know your opinion on the matter, in order to make decisions that express the choice of the majority.
As parent volunteers, we have the same questions, frustrations and difficulties as you do and would like to work with you to resolve this difficult situation.
Considering :
- That the UPMD has neither the human means (volunteer parents) nor the financial means, nor the capacity to intervene legally, being an association recognised in France but not in Vietnam,
- That in this period of crisis for Covid, the market is very tight for bus companies and that launching a new call for tenders now is not a feasible solution,
- That unfortunately there is no other alternative to propose (neither the LFI Duras, nor the AEFE seem to want to replace the UPMD to manage the transport of children to school),
L’UPUPMD currently has only two options to propose for members using the school transport service:
(* Please find at the bottom of the page some elements that we think will be useful in your decision making).
Option 1: Accept the adjustment of the contract conditions with the single fare of 10,500,000 vnd and benefit from the continuation of school transport, and accept that the UPMD transport commission continues to manage school transport to the best of its ability.
Option 2: Refuse the new tariff conditions, stop the transport service (the UPMD transport commission will no longer collectively manage school transport on behalf of the parents).
This would have the following consequences:
- Being without a collectively organised bus service
- Take the risk of a significant tariff increase:
- just over 24,000,000 vnd/year (tariff proposed by the previous provider in the 2020-2023 tender)
- up to VND 30,000,000/year/child (estimated by LFI Duras in 2019-20, should the institution agree to take over the bus activity with a local provider).
- Loss of control of the quality of the service
We therefore invite you to complete the survey before 21 January 2022 via this link:
https://forms.gle/NUK47NCN65qjB6q98
We will follow the opinion of the majority and will of course inform you as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely
Parent volunteers of UPMD
*Elements & Information :
Some figures & comparisons :
The highest cost, which amounts to a cost price of VND 115,000 per day, is particularly damaging for primary school families. However, it still represents a reduction of around 10% in the tariff compared to 2019-20, despite the Covid crisis.
To put the whole situation in perspective, it should also be noted that since the start of the service in 2020-21, SBS has lost more than 100 days of paid service out of a total of 350 days of allocated service, i.e. almost 30% loss. While the rates were studied globally for 3 years of service under normal conditions, not to mention the loss of 30% of the expected student population, the sharp increase in the price of petrol and the introduction of a toll on the road serving the school.
Thank you for your collaboration !
With kind regards,
The UPMD parent volunteers
Leave a Reply