Low wages gets bad drivers, but higher fares might bring in better drivers. This is the idea behind the government considering a 10% to 30% increase in express bus fares, reported by the Malay Mail.
Deputy transport minister Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar told parliament today that low wages forces express bus drivers to work more than eight hours a day just to claim overtime.
“The reason behind the accidents and low quality bus drivers when compared to other countries is due to their low salary. Their average take home income is around RM3,000 including their allowance. They don’t have a good working environment either and we discourage them from working more than eight hours. That’s the reason the quality of their driving has gone down. That’s why we are considering raising the bus express fares in a reasonable manner.
“If the express bus service operator earns more, they can raise the drivers’ salaries and the drivers have better working conditions. We hope their service and quality will improve, leading to fewer accidents,” Kamarudin said, in reply to a question by Kapar MP Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid.
The last time express bus fares were raised was in 2009. Then, fares went up 31% from 6.5 sen to 8.5 sen per kilometre. In 2015, the government green-lighted a surchage of 0.8 sen per km, leading to the current rate of 9.3 sen per km.
The report says that Kamarudin is aware of the pressure from express bus operators for a fare increase, but the government must at the same time consider whether or not passengers can afford it. It adds that 60% of the B40 and M40 groups use express buses for medium and long journeys, especially during festive seasons. It is said that there are around 100,000 passengers who use express bus services per day.
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Wah lau, using the same analogy then we should increase taxi fares, electricity and water fares, broadband charges and govt servant wages just to get better service? Screwed up logic
Must help our B40 & M40 mostly use bas ekspres, especially during festive season. PTPTN students & senior should given diskaun
Actually see who mostly are the bus owners and drivers. All same type. They are demanding more pay for little work done. Very typical….want easy and free money
No wonder our English so rojak, our teachers were underpaid all this while.
The bus drivers are exactly the same like our teksi gangster drivers….all lazy and want quick money. So, they ask their boss for raise all the time. Boss now put pressure on Ministry
Increased fares doesnt affect the quality and drivers income rather only increases the bus companies coffers. Effective enforcement by the authority will be much effective.
Actually Government servant wages no need to reduce. Their huge number of 1.6 million Government servants need to reduce though. Largest Civil Service in the world…..too much of money spent on their gaji. They still bilip 10 people do 1 person’s work
No need to cut headcount. Just cut the gaji of Ministers from 80k back down to 20k of the last Gov Ministers. Then can save a lot of money to pay for civil servants. U still belip we need to pay current Ministers 4X more to do the job of one previous Minister.
In Malaysia, you have a big grou of people who don’t want to work hard but they expect big pay in return. That is the main problem in Malaysia. Laziness.
I have no problem with salary increase. Provided productivity increase as well, with no detriment to service.
If government can reduce workforce by 50%, I don’t mind govt servant salary increase by 100%. Cost to tax payer is the same.
The question is, can or not?
Most express bus users are from the B40. Most owners of express bus operators are from the M40 & T20. We can see who the G prefers.
If bus fares don’t increase, therefore as the operator it is a wise move to abandoned this business and be a politician instead. It should be a win win situation. The fare increse is long overdue. We should be fair to all parties. Diesel increase, spare part price increase (low currency the culprit), same fare? Is it logic? Same goes with the school bus. A RM5-RM6 increment is a just then the operator gulung tikar and we only had Grab as another option. Think about it.Minimal increment, but you still can use a RM300k bus with paid driver.
American Capitalist always prefer business to bring more money, more jobs, more tax. Compare to last Soviet Communist, finally even the nation gone down together.
What happen to free market enterprise? Why race to the top of pricing while market forces dictates a race to the bottom? Has regulated prices ever being fair to the consumers? NO! It has always been fair only to the operators, every increment there is no improvement at all in terms of servicing nor safety nor industry. The new Government is so easily bullied just like the Grab/taxi issue, when the solution is so simple, just liberalise the industry. If current operators refuse to do business at the rate market dictates, then they should give way to those that can. Not stifle them with extra unnecessary regulations like those upon Grab drivers. This is totally unfair to those bus users who invariably are from low income earners!
First to hear support for this kind of free market besides my husband and I it’s refreshing! Agree Jan 2019 regulation on ride hailing will cause customer to pay more cuz there will be less drivers. take away tariffs, subsidies, ceiling prices and let the true market price fight. New gov is obviously a populist gov.
We need to change all the bus drivers to overseas labour like China, India or Bangladeshi.
This will bring down the cost. Current drivers are demanding too much of pay.
Somemore they get a big cut for stopping in their fren restaurant for toilet break. They get a huge percentage.
Passengers lose from overpriced food
Why not? China, India or Bangladesh have some of the highest bus & truck accident rates in the world. So your lazy idea to have more accidents here, is that so?
You need to learn about economy 101. The more you hire cheap labour cost from outside country, the more you national economy goes down as the money they earned will be brought back to their country.
Pls learn more before talking like an uneducated people.
I agree with you, rakyat voted new gov to hope they will help rakyat especially B40, now news getting more and more are burden the rakyat… Increase bus fare get better driver!? First, if anybody want to be driver, they should be responsible from the beginning of his/her job. Second, no matter how good the driver is, bus company still pay their salary as same as others. This increase bus fare theory just to feed bus company’s pocket, not about better or worst driver!
Most drivers & haulers already making RM 5k and above, it’s standard that they do OT moreso during school holidays such as now. This RM 3k thing for drivers is nonsense! Their bosses can repackage OT allowances into that RM 3k easily.
The only benefit this price increase goes to, is the fat pockets of bus operator owners and their politicians! New Malaysia?! Phui!!!
Spot on!!!
Tenkiu for giving a voice to the B40s who cant afford to come here and vent their restlessness.
naik bas also mahal. apa also mahal.
why need to increase fares? excuse to cover 1MDB?
To cover Rm75k ministers salaries.
Naik bas mahal, beli proton 3.0, problem settle
Greedy bus operator ord got diesel subsidy and quota
30% increase? Might as well take Airasia instead.
still cheaper to take the express bus lahh.. you need to factor in the cost of going to the airport & vice versa.
Let say penang to JB. Bus RM80, air asia RM140. Bus 10 hour. Air asia 45 minutes. Bus increase 30% RM104. Worth it?
Dont you all notice,semua pun sendiri cakap,sendiri syok…aiyoh,like this digging own grave only.
No GST also price hike haa?
Their promises to the rakyat have been capatied and forgotten after elections so soon.
Nonsense of the decade! 3K is way above Malaysia’s minimum salary… u might be able to change a bad driver’s attitude for a short period of time after the wage increase, but that is not sustainable. Use the technology to enforce the regulation instead dude. If this group of drivers are unfit, let next group move up to fill the slot. There is still a big pool making less than 3k!!! WAKE UP TO REALITY
Rakyat voted for nonsense Gov, thus they get a nonsense Gov lor.
I don’t know about bus drivers.
In Thailand, a truck driver also helps with loading and off-loading products.
But in Malaysia, a similarly paid truck driver only drives a truck, but no additional work for him.
Malaysians are just pampered and lazy. That’s why our minister who is equally lazy to think finds it convenient just to raise the wage in the hope of raising the safety standard of buses.
reduce or remove all relevant taxes for public transport vehicles… the operator can raise drivers salary without fare increases…ekekekekekekkeke
Dont use excuse to raise ticket prices by justifying with “increase safety”, for “better service”, etc konon
Clearly, is the the pathetic lack of enforcement of authorities on bus operators. Lack of commitment despite we have so many rules and regulations.
Bus operators kept flaunting the law and rules again and again. Becoz officer mau cari makan, and everything can kawtim.
Cronies business model oso takboleh pakai….
see who are mainly the drivers….then you will understand why they are demanding more pay for less work done
One important factor to consider , will the Bus Operator be honest enough to pass the emolment to their Bus drivers??.. if there’s not enough monitoring / enforcement by the Government , the company owners are bound to divert the 30% revenue increase to their own pockets -new luxury cars , bungalow houses, fully paid overseas fmly trip, etc.
This expensive that expensive. Work smarter la. Not smart enough, then work harder. Semua nak free. Di rumah bapak banyak kereta, emas, mcm2.
Bus drivers need FTL (DTL? Driving Time Limitation) just like pilots. As for tucket price and salaries, let the free market decide.
and this is why malaysia is still .. behind other developed country. what kind of mentality is this..
Wa! Genius! According to your logic, rm3000 is not enough and they have had working condition, driving in a bus with air conditioning, then does this deputy minister mean that factory workers should get more than rm3000? Many factories have to shut down!
bus driver – 40 passengers – low pay
pilot – 200 passengers – well paid