Havana/A large PedroCarr bus with the company’s brand visible on one of its sides left passersby in Central Havana with their mouths open this Thursday. In the middle of the transport crisisseeing luggage loaded and passengers imminent is nothing short of a miracle.
The MSME PedroCarr has just opened a much more expeditious way for those who can pay from abroad. This Wednesday, the private company launched a digital platform to book interprovincial trips, hotel transfers and services from Cuban airports, with rates expressed in euros.
“Travel in Cuba with us,” the private company announces in a campaign broadcast on social networks. From its new website, PedroCarr promises “fast and safe” reservations, bus rentals for excursions and events, as well as connections between the main cities and tourist destinations on the Island.
The firm ensures that its usual services in national currency will continue to operate “with the same conditions and accessibility as always.” However, the launch clearly targets Cuban emigrants who pay for their family’s trips and foreign tourists, two groups with access to foreign currency in a country where the average state salary is barely enough to cover a fraction of the price of any trip sold in euros.
PedroCarr offers the download of a 28-page tariff expressly identified as “Viazul service rates”
The most striking thing is not only in the advertisement, but in the documents hosted on the website itself. PedroCarr offers the download of a tariff of 28 pages expressly identified as “Viazul service rates”, with routes from airports, provincial capitals, hotels and tourist centers throughout the country.
From terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport, for example, a transfer to Old Havana costs 10 euros. The trip to Las Tunas appears at 44 euros, Holguín at 50, Santiago de Cuba at 60 and Baracoa at 74. The amounts include two suitcases and vary for children, round trips and multi-destination tours.
The document is practically identical to the one used by Viazul, the service of the state-owned National Bus Company traditionally oriented towards tourism and passengers who pay in foreign currency. PedroCarr does not explain in its advertisement whether it acts as an intermediary, marketing agency or transporter hired by Viazul, nor what part of the amount remains in the hands of the MSME.
The platform is presented as a bus transportation management and reservation system, but the route deployment offered covers practically the entire national geography, from Viñales to Baracoa, as well as airports, keys and hotel complexes.
PedroCarr is not a newly created company. The Ministry of Economy and Planning included it in its official lists of new economic actors as a private MSME in the municipality of Las Tunas dedicated to land transportation of passengers. It was authorized in 2022, during the first large wave of small and medium-sized businesses approved by the Government.
As of February this year, the company’s own fleet consisted of ten Yutong buses and seven Foton minibuses, as well as 17 other leased vehicles.
Behind the business is Pedro Yosvany Carbonell Fernández, known as The Chinese. The official newspaper 26from Las Tunas, identified him in 2022 as administrator of the then called Pedrocar y Socio and placed the start of the project on May 8 of that year. Its initial objective was to move passengers between Las Tunas and Havana.
A publication of Latin Press of February this year He already mentions him as president of PedroCarr and points out that the company covered the Havana-Puerto Padre and Havana-Las Tunas routes with fares in pesos. For the acquisition of its buses, the private MSME had a financing contract from an unidentified Spanish entity, managed through the International Consulting. PedroCarr also worked with foreign suppliers such as the Chinese Yutong Bus and the Mexican Sunshine Best.
On that date, the company’s own fleet consisted of ten Yutong buses and seven Foton minibuses. To these 17 vehicles were added another 17 leased to the state-owned National Bus Company, so that PedroCarr then had 34 vehicles under its management. The launch of a platform that offers connections throughout the Island now points to growth in its operations.
The service exists, the bus and fuel appear without problems and the reservation can be made without long lines… but in euros
The expansion of private enterprise has occurred, therefore, hand in hand with public institutions. PedroCarr has marketed capacities through state terminals and has operated in a sector in which the lack of fuel, spare parts and vehicles keeps numerous state routes paralyzed.
For a Cuban resident on the Island, 44 euros for a trip from Havana airport to Las Tunas is equivalent to tens of thousands of pesos in the informal market. For a family member paying from Miami or Madrid, on the other hand, it can be a quick solution to the impossibility of finding state tickets.
That difference summarizes the direction that a good part of the Cuban economy has taken. The service exists, the bus and fuel appear without problems and the reservation can be made without long lines, but as long as someone, almost always from outside, has euros.
