Apparently, we will not be able to fill up at petrol stations anytime after 10pm anymore, thanks to a decision by the Petrol Dealers Association of Malaysia to go ahead with the new closing time with or without the approval of the government.
Yesterday, Association president Alang Zari Ishak said petrol stations along the highways would still remain open 24 hours, but in a report by The Star on page N3 today, acting president Major (Rtd) Wahid Bidin says the decision would also affect petrol stations along the highways.
The petrol dealers cited problems such as armed robberies, increased security costs, higher wages for workers, low night sales, soaring rentals and higher electricity tariffs as reasons for the decision. Average collection after 10pm was only about RM1,000 per station, thus it was not profitable to keep the station open as the margins earned from the RM1,000 during the night did not justify the salary and electricity costs.
They also want customers to bear the 1% commission that is payable to the banks with credit card transactions.
The new opening hours for the petrol stations is proposed to be 7am to 10pm, and the decision is likely to go into effect in 2 months time. I hope they decide not to go ahead with it in this two month’s time, or the government does something to stop them.
BTW, if you are wondering why the association had a president yesterday and today suddenly it’s spokesperson is an acting president, what happened was ex-president Alang Zari Ishak was voted out by 51 out of 65 members for allegedly failing to champion the association’s interests.
