SPAD re-registering of commercial vehicles continues

TRANSIT took note of these two articles discussing SPAD’s plan to re-register all 350,000 commercial vehicle operators in Peninsular Malaysia.

• SPAD: Operators have five months to comply with directive (The Star, 10 May 2011);
• Exercise is to streamline land transport industry (The Star, 10 May 2011).

In the past, these commercial vehicle operators were either registered with the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (public transport/public service and freight vehicles) and the Tourism Ministry (Excursion buses).

Now that SPAD has taken over the responsibility for land transport in Peninsular Malaysia, there is a need to streamline the permits and determine how many of the individual companies & operators still exist.

SPAD will also be shifting from a “vehicle based” permit system to an “operator-based system” – which will lift some of the existing limitations on bus routes (permits are granted for 1 bus on 1 route with 1 driver and route endpoints are currently fixed by the government) which can affect operational flexibility.

More importantly, it will help to reduce the number of permits given out to unregistered “operators” under the existing illegal “Pajak” system that many permit owners use.

SPAD’s chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismal Kamal said the re-registration of the estimated 350,000 vehicles in peninsular Malaysia would regulate and make for a better industry.

“The ultimate objective of the exercise is to better regulate the industry and to improve the nation’s land transport for the benefit of the people,” he said.

He said the exercise would enable SPAD to identify the current status of licencees and identify inactive and “problematic” operators.

“The data will later be used for the process of migrating all licences to operator-based licences from the current vehicle-based system,” he added.

TRANSIT Says:

SPAD is ready to take on the public transport industry. There will definitely be interesting times ahead.