Higher fares answer to bus accidents?

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Each time a horrific bus accident happens, people clamour for — and demand — that something be done.

That something could be as simple as raising bus fares.

Dr Yeah Kim Leng, RAM Holdings chief economist, said there is a correlation between the low bus ticket prices and the number of accidents that involve busses.

“The controlled prices are too low and bus companies are not able to make sufficient money to improve working conditions and the upgrading of their entire operations,” he said.

Road Safety Department Director-General Datuk Suret Singh told The Malaysian Insider that bus fares were “partly deregulated and is in the process of further deregulation.”

He added that “some aspects have already been implemented. Some are in the pipeline to be followed through by SPAD (Land Public Transport Commission).”

However, Suret said that the deregulation of bus fares should be viewed “over a period from past to future” rather than at a specific “point of time.”

Yeah added that consumers would not hesitate to pay more for bus tickets, so long as there was commensurate “improvement in quality of service.”

Commuters from the lower-income group, Yeah suggested, could be provided with some form of subsidy or transportation stamp, although he was quick to add that there should not be too much emphasis on subsidy programmes.

“If you raise the price, it is also good. You have other positive effects (such as) reducing travel and pollution.

“Make the prices right. It is inevitable that bus companies try to cut cost because their welfare is not taken into consideration. In a way, it’s a market failure,” he said.

Yeah also emphasised on the need for continuous enforcement, and added that the working condition and welfare of the bus drivers must not be neglected.

“It’s an industry-wide issue, so we have to look at it at a holistic manner,” he said.

The biggest problem now is the lack of management attention and the lack of government oversight, he added.

“To ensure sufficient competition among [bus operators], the regulators also need to look at whether there’s excessive competition. If too many licences are given out to companies, making it unprofitable, that could also be the cause of it,” Yeah said.

According to the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board, 5,332 bus express licences have been issued as of March 31, 2010.

The number of accidents involving express buses went up to 2,348 cases in 2009 from 2,056 the year before, according to the Road Safety Department website.

Asides from the busses themselves, the authorities have also begun to introduce new regulations to address the personnel who operate the vehicles.

In September 2008, the Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Code of Practice (COP) was launched by the Ministry of Transport to provide specific guidelines for employers and employees to manage health, safety and environmental issues in the transportation sector.

Like many of the existing rules governing the industry, obtaining its observance has required the authorities to take a stern approach.

“Unscrupulous operators do not take the now compulsory (since January 2010) Safety Environment and Health code (SHE) seriously and [that] is the reason why the government took the stringent step of cancellation of all permits belonging to two operators involved in the latest serious bus crashes,” Suret said.

Earlier this month, Syarikat Kuala Lumpur-Malacca Express Sdn Bhd and Syarikat Taipan Suria (MM2H) Sdn Bhd had their licences revoked by the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CLVB) after express buses owned by the two companies were involved in the recent accidents — one in Melaka and another, Genting Sempah — which claimed a total of 20 lives.

In the case of the Genting Sempah accident, the bus driver involved was found to not be in possession of a valid driving licence.

Pan-Malaysia Bus Operators Association president Datuk Mohamad Ashfar Ali told The Malaysian Insider that the authorities should be stricter in upholding existing laws and policies to cut down on road accidents.

“Enforcement should be stricter, there should be more round-the-clock enforcement to put the fear into drivers, not only commercial but all drivers because other road users contribute to accidents as well,” he said.

Ashfar said the public always blamed the drivers in bus accidents without taking into consideration other contributing factors or multiplier effects.

Zulkarnain Hamzah, a representative from The Association for the Improvement of Mass Transit (Transit), a public transport proponent and watchdog, expressed dismay over the lack of progress despite the repeated accidents involving public transport industry.

“Currently, no party wants to take the ownership to gauge the operators’ performance and service standards, assess drivers’ conditions, determine transport supply and demand, and assess effectiveness of the travel corridors served by the buses,” he added. Zulkarnain then urged the government to make bus operators equip their buses with safety features such as side curtain airbags and seat belts for passengers.

Saying the cost of such technology should not be an issue, Zulkarnain added that these must be compared to the cost in terms of lost productivity arising from the “premature deaths of our young, aspiring youths whose hope we depend on to bring this country to a greater future.”

He pointed out that Malaysia continued to lag behind other governments that have enforced more stringent measures such as safety and quality audit systems, universal wire rope safety barriers, safer bus chassis standards, speed limiters, and passenger restraint systems.

“With tight regulatory enforcement and clever load balancing options, express bus operators can compete in a healthy environment without the need of any price ceiling,” he said.