Bus operators want level playing field

Private stage bus operators are under mounting pressures to improve their fare collection and provide world-class service.

PETALING JAYA: The stage bus sector is nearing its end despite the massive amount of capital outlay and public subsidies, the Pan Malaysia Bus Operators Association (PMBOA) president Mohamad Ashfar Ali claimed today.

“The dysfunctional stage bus industry and the affected public transport system are the inevitable outcome of years of misguided and forced amalgamation exercise and poorly executed transport policies, that have insidiously undermined a once vibrant private sector stage bus industry,” he said in a statement.

Ashfar said the private stage bus industry was facing various obstacles in carrying out its business due to several reasons, including the “uneven playing field between the state-owned and government-linked companies, and the private operators.”

“Other issues include government transport policies that provide government-owned firms privileges, lack of transparent operating rules and regulations, omission of private sector bus operators in the Draft National Land Public Transport Master Plan and numerous other issues that have not been resolved,” he added

PMBOA also feels private stage bus operators have lost their economic freedom due to lack of level playing fields, the encroachment of its corridor from public-backed stage bus operators, and the arbitrary rules and regulations.

Ashfar also claimed that the private stage bus operators are facing mounting financial and public pressures from shareholders and commuters to improve their fare collection and provide world-class service.

“The private stage bus operators who do not or cannot operate economically should be allowed to exit the industry. They should also be given fair compensation from the government upon exit in accordance with the ‘Malacca formula’,” he added.

Under the Malacca formula, a lump sum payment is given by the state government to private stage bus operators to help them wind up their business. This includes payments for operational buses according to their market value and retrenchment compensation for all their employees.

(The Malacca formula was adopted by the state government when it acquired private stage bus operations in the state.)

Ashfar also called for the corridor system to be restored to private sector operators so that each well-demarcated corridor will be served solely or jointly by RapidKL and/or the private sector operators.

“We want a fair deal – whether to continue in the business on a level playing field or to exit in an equitable and dignified manner.”

PMBOA was founded in 1951 and its members have the legal right to demand fair compensation if the government wants RapidKL to take over the entire or partial stage bus industry, he said.