Overhaul bus industry

TS,Saturday, 2 April 2011 

Words in italics omitted by The Star 

I refer to “Sort out driver issue and all will fall in place” (The Star, March 31).The industry will take a quantum leap when buses are operated by professionally trained and disciplined drivers. 

However, drivers are but the tip of the iceberg. The entire system culminating in producing such drivers needs to be overhauled and transformed. 

Bus drivers have often been addressed as captains but such a glorified title ring hollow when they are poorly trained, undisciplined and work for low wages. 

They should not be compared to airline pilots. The closest role model to emulate would be the drivers of fuel tankers operated by local oil companies. These drivers are adequately trained, closely monitored and appropriately compensated. Their vehicles too, are properly maintained and operated, with safety uppermost in mind. 

Bus companies should not treat their customers as human cargo and it is really a shame when goods are handled with greater care than bus passengers. 

Only the Land Public Transport Commission (LPTC) can set transformation in motion by firstly deregulating fares, especially for express buses. 

Express bus operators should be allowed to charge market rates and compete on service. This will keep them on their toes and ensure that their buses are well maintained and drivers well behaved. 

The airlines are doing exactly just that with their airfares, aircrafts and crews. Over regulation, coupled with lack of enforcement by the previous Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board, has created the present predicament. 

LPTC should introduce measures to churn out quality drivers and not rely on current practice whereby anyone with a heavy vehicle driving licence can be employed as a bus driver upon getting the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence, with or without experience. 

The health and character for some of these drivers are suspect. In addition, they may not be familiar with operating the bus or route assigned to them. It becomes a time bomb when they drive long distance overnight in inclement weather, bad road and traffic conditions. 

The minimum age to drive a bus or a taxi is 21. Those with some experience driving buses and lorries should be encouraged to become professional express bus drivers. 

They must be adequately trained in defensive driving, courtesy and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Those in the 25-30 age groups would have a good 25 years of bus driving ahead of them if they do not succumb to the free food and cigarettes at most rest stops. 

Their employers should also provide training in other areas so that the drivers can take on other roles should they choose to do, or at the end of their driving career. 

For example, many tour guides successfully switch to other careers or take up office jobs within the same company. Quite a number have become tour company bosses. 

To attract good candidates, there must be adequate compensation and a career path in place to ensure that bus driving is not a dead-end job. 

The current ad-hoc practice and arrangements by unprofessional bus companies have naturally resulted in unprofessional bus drivers 

It would be expecting too much of bus drivers to perform well when they do not earn enough to support their families. 

Many of them would also fail a genuine health test but managed to renew their annual PSV licence using fake medical certificates. 

The bus industry must be in the doldrums with many express bus operators openly calling on the Government to buy them out. 

Clearly, nothing short of transformation is needed for our bus industry. 

YS Chan 

Kuala Lumpur