The war against errant commercial vehicle operators and drivers is getting into high gear as both the transport ministry and the police have begun unveiling road safety campaigns in response to numerous traffic deaths caused by heavy vehicles over the past two months.
The road transport department (JPJ) has ratcheted up action by conducting surprise inspections of both the premises and operations of Puspakom, the entity entrusted with certifying the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles over the last 30 years.
Two weeks ago, Ops Gempur Teknikal was launched by JPJ to enforce Section 57 of the Land Transport Act 2010 in anticipation of heavy traffic expected during the upcoming festive seasons in January and April this year.
Under Section 57, company owners and vehicle operators will face penalties for suspected violations of conditions set out in operator licences, including in respect of any failure to “safeguard the safety of other road users”, whatever that means.
The recent traffic safety campaigns targeting commercial vehicles have been in response to the bizarre road traffic deaths caused by a tyre coming off a truck in the middle of the North-South Highway. Seven people on board a bus and MPV died in the resultant crashes two days before Christmas.
Earlier last month, a 21-year-old woman died when a truck and its container squashed her car in Bukit Mertajam, Penang.
Two days later, on the PLUS highway near Kluang, a motorcyclist died when a truck in front of him lost control following a tyre blow-out.
These fatalities were all caused by heavy commercial vehicles, with two out of the three involving truck tyres.
On this point it must be noted that although Japanese and continental trucks have different approaches to securing tyres to axles, it is impossible for a properly secured tyre to detach itself unless the vehicle is grossly overloaded to the point it causes the tyres’ rims to flex.
The overloading of commercial vehicles is one of three main factors in commercial vehicle crashes, the others being speeding and poor vehicle maintenance.
There is a simple solution to commercial vehicle overloading, but it is difficult to accomplish. The challenge is essentially in systematic and sustained enforcement.
As it stands, the perception of being caught by enforcement authorities is more about the cost of the bribe rather than violating the law.
Overloaded trucks, namely those that carry grossly more than their permitted load, will cause steering and brake systems to fail, both of which can have deadly consequences.
Another reason why there has been a failure to prevent commercial vehicle overloading is that the network of weighbridges is not optimally located. This is due to a historical lack of coordination between the works ministry, which allocates the land and builds the weighbridges, and the transport ministry, which operates them.
As for speeding, transport minister Loke Siew Fook has taken the initiative of asking bus operators to install speed limiters. These are devices that control a vehicle by keeping it within the speed limit, with an allowance given to enable the driver to overtake by accelerating up to a certain speed and for a certain duration.
Loke should ensure there are speed limiters on all commercial vehicles.
On this note, and in the context of more powerful modern trucking equipment, he might even want to ask the advice of the police, the Malaysian Highway Authority and the works ministry whether the 80/90 km/h speed limit on commercial vehicles deserves updating or whether there should be a variable speed limit.
As for vehicle maintenance, let’s remember that JPJ was the original custodian of the roadworthiness inspection of commercial vehicles until 30 years ago, when the government privatised the service to Puspakom.
Since then, an informal but powerful system of “runners” has enveloped Puspakom’s commercial vehicle roadworthiness inspection process.
Most of the heavy vehicle owners do not send their entire fleet of vehicles for inspection themselves. Instead, they contract these “runners” to handle the inspection of older trucks which usually have defective brakes, sport balding tyres and emit excessive smoke.
In the transport business where the certainty of logistic schedules is of paramount importance, a runner is almost worth his weight in gold if he can return a truck certified as roadworthy within a day.
On the other hand, if the owners were to get their own drivers to send in their vehicles, it may require two or three trips before their vehicles meet the roadworthiness standard.
That even relatively new trucks can fail if a runner has not been appointed is proof of a flawed system.
As said earlier, there are three elements in the commercial vehicle sector that cause the high rate of traffic fatalities—overloading, speeding, and poor vehicle maintenance.
Short-term campaigns and operations conducted as a reaction to high-profile traffic fatalities are good optics for the police and transport ministry to show they are taking the necessary action.
However, to reduce traffic fatalities over the long run, joint enforcements must be conducted throughout the year. They must be carried out systematically, transparently and fairly. They must also be corruption-free.
Unless and until that happens, high road traffic death rates will continue to victimise road users in Malaysia. No number of high-powered seasonal campaigns is ever going to change that. - FMT
Yamin Vong can be reached on his Facebook page, yamin.com.my.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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