School bus operators fear it’s the end of the road

With schools closed, perhaps until the end of the year, school bus operators fear they will go out of business. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The umbrella body of school bus associations has called for government aid to help bus operators, who fear they are at risk of going out of business because of school closures.

Amali Munif Rahmat, president of the Federation of School Bus Associations Malaysia, said the bus operators anticipate that school sessions were likely to be cancelled for the rest of the year, except for SPM and STPM students.

This year’s UPSR and PT3 examinations have already been cancelled.

“After three months, if there is no school, most parents would not want to pay for our services. But we still have to repay the loans for our buses and pay our drivers, even without any revenue,” he said.

He said the school bus operators under the federation served 1.5 million children, from kindergarten to secondary school level.

They already face stiff competition from illegal operators using personal vehicles, he said. Some 90% of bus drivers bought secondhand buses for their business; banks were reluctant to lend money for secondhand vehicles, leaving most operators taking loans from credit leasing companies.

These loans came with high interest rates of 7%-10%.

“To make matters worse, the moratorium on bank loans does not cover credit leasing companies so we still have to repay our loans. There’s no moratorium for us,” he said.

Bus drivers can only collect fares for 10.5 months a year owing to the various school holidays and most bus drivers were now working part-time as food delivery riders. Amali said if schools were not reopened in three months, then the drivers are likely to quit and find permanent jobs elsewhere.

“If there’s no school, we won’t have incomes, we can’t pay salaries and our loans. Our companies may cease to exist. We are just sharing the reality of the situation,” he said.

Other transport providers such as taxi and e-hailing services, could remain in operation, even with restrictions of the movement control order, but this was not the case for them.

Amali said he hoped the government would grant them a moratorium on their loans while schools remained closed.

They also hope the government would provide an allowance for operators during this period. “If schools do not open until the end of the year, how do we provide for our families?” he said. - FMT