While initially only involving primary students, this is enough to give them hope to rise again after a prolonged shutdown following the Covid-19 pandemic early last year.
Federation of School Bus Associations Malaysia president Amali Munif Rahmat said the sector had long suffered after the movement control order (MCO) was first implemented last year, forcing school sessions to be deferred.
“Almost 40% of school bus operators had to cease business. We used to have around 10,000 operators nationwide, but now I will say there are only about 6,000 left.
“The rest had to wind up operations, suffering losses as they were unable to maintain the buses. Many have also turned to the gig economy to survive.
“We had to bear maintenance costs and debts as the last payment we received from parents was in September last year.
“Overall, in 2020, we were only paid six months’ worth of fees, which was in January, February, March, July, August and September,” he told Bernama.
Munif said besides the decline in industry players, many guardians were also worried about the transmission of Covid-19 on school buses. Because of that, many still do not allow their children to use the school bus service.
“Parents who are allowed to work from home have also affected our service since they now have more time to send children to school and fetch them.
“This is worrying as our graph shows a consistent downward trend for passengers. Moreover, we have lost more than 500,000 passengers or 33% compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Education minister Radzi Jidin recently announced that schools would reopen in stages starting with preschoolers and Years One and Two on March 1 nationwide. This will be followed by Years Three, Four, Five and Six from March 8.
Secondary schools will commence sessions on April 4 for those in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, and on March 5 for the other states.
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