The Not PUBLIC Servicing TRANSPORT

I had just known yesterday that my neighbour, Fauzi, is no more driving a taxi.

The cab owner had taken it back. What's his next step? He has no idea at the moment after been driving a cab for almost 20 years.
Prior to this, he was driving lorries north and south of the peninsular but as age is catching up, he doubt of doing the same job.

He did apply to drive  the yellow bus,  but at the basic salary of RM18.00 per day, he has to give it a very deep thought.
Initially, it's hard for me to believe my friend's husband salary as a bus driver driving the Pontian route range at RM25.00 to RM28.00 but seeing they still struggle to put food on the table for the family despite the wife working as a chamber maid, I know that they are telling the truth.

The wife, after working more than 16 years in Seri Malaysia Hotel, take home salary is less than RM1,000.
I cried as I typed the figure RM1,000. In fact, it's less than RM900. (RM1,000 just to make me feel nice). The family, with 5 schooling children, struggled harder when the father was involved in an accident.
He stayed at home for 3 months.

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Honestly, I have phobia taking local route bus.
The driver whose bus I was in, kept to his extreme left along Jalan Ah Fook, squeezing into the motorcyclist path that led the motorist lost his balance and fell. It gave the driver and his friend, a bus driver too I supposed, a good laugh.
Where does the laughter will lead them?
From then on, no more short bus trip around JB for me.

Prior to this, I thought a bus card which was sold to me at a bus stop along Jalan Tun Abdul Razak will be a great convenience to me, like the Singapore's ez-link card. Little did I know that I had to travel to the depot for top-up. Where has the bus card led passengers?

Once, while travelling back from KL, the Trans-National bus driver said it's common for drivers to sit on as many as 20 traffic summons.
They were caught in between the number of journeys taken, feeling compassion for passengers and abiding the law. Passengers will definitely want to be dropped off nearest to their destinations but the traffic police will book them for not following the law.

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I was at Kampong Melayu when I saw a bus passing through the place.
Oh, it's 1Malaysia bus at RM1.00 going round Giant Supermarket and Larkin Plaza. Will the bus fleet be phased out if 1Malaysia is no more the chanted slogan?

I remembered the time when Larkin Terminal was built, the then determination by the then MB was to compete with the Singapore's bus interchange. The Transitlink bus fleet will liken the SBS.
Other things built and implemented were all about competing, not working hand-in-hand.

Where has all these aspirations lead Johoreans?

About public transport woes, it is endless. Just read today's letter in The Star.
There are 2 letters actually to be read.

Disappointed with bus journey to Singapore                            

SINGAPORE was our first trip after our wedding three years ago. We decided to travel by coach because it was cheaper than flying.
Hence, we went to the Bukit Jalil bus station to book the coach ticket a week before our trip. Everything seemed fine and we were looking forward to the trip. However, it did not go as smoothly as we wished.
On May 31, we arrived in Bukit Jalil around 7.45am to ensure we were on time for departure. We had a very bad morning. Departure was delayed due to insufficient number of passengers. The early passengers waited patiently for the coach to be full. We were supposed to depart at 8.30am but ended up starting the journey at 10.30am.
We couldn’t wait to set foot in Singapore. Another disappointment awaited us at the Larkin bus terminal in Johor. The coach conductor told us to disembark, and he brought us to the RM2.50 Singapore-Johor shuttle bus for travel to Singapore.
We were told that this coach was a direct coach to Singapore. Why were we told to get down from the coach and take the public bus? The assistant conductor dared us to complain, saying that they were not bothered.
I am very disappointed with this kind of attitude and those companies that run their business dishonestly. If as a Malaysian I have lost confidence in our public transport, what will foreigners with similar experiences think of us?
DISSATISFIED PASSENGER,
Seri Kembangan.

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Get the bus system revving smoothly first
THE Association for the Improvement of Mass-Transit notes that this appears to be a week of major change and announcements for public transport.
We have a new Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha, and the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) was created on June 1 with Syed Hamid Albar as the first chair.
We also have the recent announcement of proposals for an MRT network in the Klang Valley and a high-speed rail route between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In addition, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will introduce the 10th Malaysia Plan today.
Despite all these changes, Transit wonders how much effort is being made to shift our public transport industry from an entrepreneurial model to a service-based model.
No matter how much money is invested in mega projects, we will never see an improved public transport system unless there is improved leadership and a real push towards a service-based model.
We can only hope that with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as Minister-in-Charge, Syed Hamid Albar as chair, and Mohd Nor Ismail Nor Kamal as CEO, the Land Public Transport Commission will be a proactive leadership, with a clear vision for public transport and the confidence and ability to move the industry forward.
Similarly, we hope that Kong Cho Ha, as Transport Minister, will put people first, not companies first.
Before we look at LRT and MRT projects and spending perhaps RM50bil to expand the rail network in the Klang Valley, we must first improve the reliability and availability of the existing bus services in the Klang Valley and other cities throughout Malaysia.
The best way to do this is in two simple steps:
First, Spad must work with the Transport Minister and local and state governments to create Public Transport Organising Authorities for the six largest urban areas in Malaysia – the Klang Valley, Johor Baru, Penang, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Ipoh.
The Organising Authorities – which could be government agencies (like the Penang Transport Council), private companies (like RapidKL) or responsible agencies (like the Iskandar Regional Development Authority) – would be responsible for the planning, management and organisation of public transport in their respective regions.
They would work with existing public transport operators to improve the availability and reliability of basic public transport services and expand those services to meet the social and economic needs of each region.
Second, as part of the 10th Malaysia Plan, the Government gives RM1bil to each of the six Organising Authorities to invest this money (and more which they would raise themselves) into creating complete and sustainable rapid transit networks.
If the money is spent in the most cost-effective manner, we can build the complete, reliable public transport networks that our cities need.
Once public transport in these six regions has been stabilised by the Organising Authorities, and a complete rapid transit network is in place, the Government can start looking at larger scale investment projects like MRT and High Speed Rail.
MOAZ YUSUF AHMAD,
on behalf of TRANSIT.

The Taxi Story - You Are Not Alone

Cabbies live from hand to mouth
With reference to the letter "Cabbies have a hard time making a living," (Sunday Star, April 11), the writer was spot on that the average income of taxi drivers range from RM1,500 to RM1,800 per month.
  In my presentation to the Malaysian Productivity Corporation in 2008, I have worked out that their average income range from RM1,117 for those working 24 days a month to RM1,717 for those working everyday.
  Since then, there has been an increase in metre rates for budget taxis by 32% for distance travelled and 114% for time clocked.
  The numbers of taxis on the road has also gone up after the fare increase in August 2009.
  I have been driving a taxi since June 2000 and will not recommend anyone who wishes to raise a family to choose it as their livelihood.
  In London, black cab drivers earn between RM42,000 and RM56,000 a month.
  A Finnish taxi driver who was one of my passengers only has to work for 6 months and can afford to travel the rest of the year.
  Malaysian taxi drivers virtually live from hand to mouth and is best described by a Malay proverb "Kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang".
  Taxi drivers tend to splurge during good months instead of saving for rainy days.
  They suffer a double whammy when they have to pay a major mechanical or accident repairs coupled with the loss of income.
  As such, they are easy prey for loan sharks.
  Once they fall behind in payments for rental purchase to the taxi company or hire purchase to the bank and with Ah Longs breathing down their necks, their struggle for survival will unfortunately be at the expense of the unlucky passengers.
  However, it is still wrong to lump all taxi drivers in the same boat, as the public tend to treat them, including the honest ones, with scorn.
  Caring passengers like the writer from Penang can induce them to provide a better service.
  One of the reasons why enforcement of errant taxi drivers has not been effective seems from the fact that CVLB paints all taxi drivers with the same stroke.
  The CVLB director was reported to have said "If they are budak baik (good boys), we don't need to come up with the sticker rules".
  They should instead target the unscrupulous drivers who are like touts who park their taxis by the roadside at popular areas such as KLCC in Kuala Lumpur.
  Some taxi drivers who station their cars near nightspots are opportunistic pimps.
  Used to earn easy money, they also tend to fix the fare at several times more than the rate to rip off passengers.
  CVLB does not have to take measures against all the 31,000 taxi drivers.
  Their 100 enforcement officers are more than sufficient to catch the hard cores operating in full view of the public.
  Publicising specific actions taken against errant taxi drivers through various newspapers will be an effective deterrent for the rest of the cabbies to fall in line.

YS CHAN,
Kuala Lumpur               

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This writing in views section of 'Star' newspaper last Tuesday 13th, really caught my attention.

Having many neighbours and family friends who are taxi drivers, his views are the general cabbies' grouses and their wives' woes. There's never enough to feed their families even with the men driving 18 hours a day all year round.
I've yet to meet a cabbie who entitled himself a day off on a weekly basis.

Mr YS Chan, with his 10 years experience as a taxi driver, wrote his working journeys well and me, who's depending on taxis for more than 20 years journey in JB town, will classify him as the few rare drivers who can elevate the profession to the next level.
I've came across few drivers, who admitted being degree holders with no job opportunity after years of applying.
Reading YS Chan's writing reminds me of a  Singapore scientist from China  turned taxi-driver, and I did read in Singapore's Straits Times, many years back, about a pilot turned taxi-driver too.

Not all cabbies are  'unscrupulous drivers'  and not all passengers treat cabbies as 'scorns'.
Cabbies are humans with  feelings  too, topped with their unfair share of problems and 'struggle for survival'. Some of them just need 'ears' for them to be understood.
If they are heard, if the general drivers' views are seen, if the authority do not see them as collective, then the public's collective perception of seeing cabbies as opportunists will vanish as most taxi drivers just want to earn the 'honest RM by providing their best service'.