The welfare and benefits of bus drivers will be improved to attract more people to join the profession, says transport minister Anthony Loke. As reported by Bernama, this is to ensure that there are enough bus drivers in the market.
“Other than that, Prasarana is going on roadshows to recruit more bus drivers, and we hope more people come forward to take up the job,” said Loke.
Loke’s response comes after the Transport Workers Union urged the government to deal with the shortage of bus drivers in the country. In a report by FMT, union secretary-general Zainal Rampak explained high operating costs, low revenue and fierce competition are making it difficult for bus operators to recruit drivers, let alone pay them salaries which are competitive with other industries.
Zainal revealed bus drivers earn around RM2,500 per month with overtime included. The recent launch of the national-level MyPSV programme for 2023 is meant to help resolve the current shortage of bus drivers, with the government allocating RM2 million to provide 4,000 vocational public service vehicle (PSV) licences for free. From that total 500 PSVs were for bus drivers – the Class E PSV licence costs RM2,590 each.
Zainal also urged the transport ministry to restructure the bus system to reduce because the lack of profitability was forcing operators to exit the business. “Why can’t the ministry call all bus operators, talk to them and ask them to merge?” he questioned, adding that service duplication among competing operators leads to fewer passengers and impacts revenue and profitability.
“I suggest the minister discuss with operators and ask them to merge so they will not compete to get passengers; then they will make profits,” he said. By doing so, Zainal says improved profitability will allow them to attract drivers by offering better pay.
Meanwhile, Pan Malaysia Bus Operators Association president Ashfar Ali said it was difficult to retain drivers in the present climate. “The current crisis can mainly be attributed to old drivers retiring, some migrating to work in Singapore or leaving to work in other industries (for better pay) and the high entry cost of becoming a driver,” he explained.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Please regulate ehailing fares.
This is not about ehailing bro
Come on lah! No need DAP rocket scientist to figure out what they need. All this welfare & benefits is BS, the drivers just want equal pay.
If Sinkie can give SGD $3000 monthly salary, can the Gomen give equal value salary of RM 10,000? For godsake they can’t even give RM 3,000 per month so what kok is this minister talking kok about?
Us truckers also many would lari to Sinkie if the salary here wasn’t already RM 8,000++.
I pity our bus driver brothers. Have to suffer low salary and then forced to suck this lip service from minister.
to take over. He understood the need for each of them to get one off once in a while. He also craves for the publicity news.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/09/25/wee-express-bus-drivers-to-receive-one-off-rm500-aid
Dr Wee had less than 1 year as Transport Minister. Loke has in total >2 years as Transport Minister.
In terms of performance, Dr Wee did more in the short time than Loke did with twice the period.
that he had only less than 1 year as Transport Minister?
Who had the longer rein as Transport Minister? Defo Loke. So what did he do other than kawkaw sell number plates?
You can’t admit that you made a mistake with A.Hitam MP’s time period as transport minister? And then you divert attention towards S’ban MP’s involvement with JPJ’s sale of number plates? If not mistaken, paultan.org 1st article about JPJ’s sale of number plates was back in 2016, when somebody else was the transport minister.
https://paultan.org/2016/05/23/new-wp-putrajaya-f-1-to-f-9999-number-plates-open-for-tender-next-week-will-we-see-a-new-record/
“Let’s See” is just a cybertrooper. He is paid to talk sh1t about the current party and never comments on car-related matters on this site
kena kantoi. mca cytros are really a class below.
bus routes are regular and repeatable. just sack the drivers and replace with automated driving system
Should replace dangerous drivers with automated vehicle
bus drivers that earn RM2.5k per month, they are better off being a dishwasher that pays RM3k per month.