TRANSIT took note of the following article, which is a final update on the permit re-registration process that SPAD has undertaken in Peninsular Malaysia since the beginning of April 2011.
The window for the permit re-registration was from April until 30 September 2011, but many people did not re-register in time.
SPAD is now saying that all permits that have not been re-registered with SPAD as of 31 December 2011 will be revoked (hopefully as of 1 January 2012).
Register or lose licence, warns SPAD (The Star)
15 December 2011By WANI MUTHIAH
wani@thestar.com.myPETALING JAYA: The licences of public and commercial vehicles which have not been re-registered with the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) by Dec 31 will be revoked.
SPAD chief operating officer Azahar Ahmad said the owners and operators of the vehicles will then have to re-apply all over again.
He said the group had been given a grace period from April 1 to Sept 30 to get their vehicles registered.
The re-registration period was stipulated under Section 10(1) of the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (Amendment) Act 2010.
Azahar said those who wanted to do so now will have to go through a longer process.
“If they had done it during the stipulated period the process would have been very brief,” he added.
He said the names of the vehicle owners and operators have been published in the SPAD website so that they would be alerted.
The vehicles are mainly lorries and vans transporting personal and commissioned goods, schoolbuses, taxis and hired vehicles.
Pan-Malaysian Bus Operators Association president Datuk Mohamad Ashfar Ali said there could be many reasons why the vehicles had not been re-registered.
“The operators and owners may no longer be operating the business or merely holding the permits,” he said.
TRANSIT Says:
We have been following the re-registration process and look forward to seeing positive results from the new data about permit numbers – as well as the new system where permit owners are required to also be the operators of the services and are to be held responsible for any violations … either by themselves or by their employees.
SPAD’s new permit system is an “owner must operate” system, but only one permit is required for a fleet of vehicles, rather than the “one-permit-per-operator” and “one-operator-per-vehicle” requirements that existed (but was rarely enforced) in the past.
One licence will do for multiple vehicle operators (The Star)
Saturday December 17, 2011
SHAH ALAM: Operators of multiple public and commercial vehicles will no longer have to go through the hassle of renewing each of their vehicle’s licences with the implementation of a single operator’s licence.
Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar said that this would ease the management of almost 90,000 operators involving about 300,000 vehicles nationwide which included buses, taxis and rental cars.
They have until Jan 31 next year to change their current licences to the new one, he said.
“In the past, an operator who has 100 vehicles would need to have 100 licences all at once. The new system only requires an operator to have one operating licence,” he told reporters after meeting with 350 public and commercial vehicle operators in the state yesterday.
He also said the implementation would help ease law enforcement as action could be taken against operators directly for any untoward incidents and offences.
SPAD, he said, would also be standardising the issuance of the licence digitally and co-ordinate with the Road Transport Department and police to ensure a smooth transition towards the new system.
TRANSIT Says:
We at TRANSIT have basically been making the same comments on public transport for the past 5 years. Our comments reflect our view of public transport, our goals for an holistic transformation of the industry that meets all stakeholder needs.
We have made attempts to engage with the public, operators, government (local, state and federal governments and their agencies including SPAD) and even the academic and planning communities.
More often then not we receive a lot of quiet agreement from all the people who we talk to.
This streamlining of permits will put permits back into the hands of real operators (rather than rent-seekers), and also allow the flexibility for operators to grow and expand without having to face bureaucracy or parasitic “associations” which would actually take advantage of the unsustainable state of the public transport industry.
This should hopefully lead us from a permit-based, profit-focused system to a operations-based, service-focused system. In other words, reliable, sustainable public transport that people can feel encouraged to use.
But even with these changes, there will be challenges. The public will still need to be strong and support SPAD with complaints & updates on drivers who violate regulations and the conditions of their permits.
And no matter what, we will still need local public transport organizing authorities to help manage & organize public transport service so that it is customer and service focused … and ensure that it is effective.
Transit Malaysia 