Stage bus and express bus drivers have had close to no business since district and state borders were closed under travel restrictions, as well as a lingering fear among some members of the public that public transport is unsafe.

“It’s become cheaper for us to simply let our employees go and find new jobs. The wage subsidy is great if you can pay the rest of a worker’s salary, but for months we’ve had nearly no income,” said Mohamad Ashfar Ali, president of the Pan-Malaysian Bus Operators Association.

While in Pemerkasa Plus, special one-off payments of RM500 were given to some in the transport industry, stage bus and express bus drivers were not included.

Ashfar said he had met with transport minister Wee Ka Siong in April to express the difficulties faced by his members, and was still hoping his proposals would be accepted.

“When a bus is sitting idle for over a year, things start to deteriorate. If things open up again we all need to start operating, we will have to service our buses before we can work as usual.

“We proposed a one-off grant of RM11,158 per vehicle, which is 70% of the costs it would take to get a bus safe and operational. We took the average prices of things like battery replacement, suspension servicing and new tyres and came up with the figure drivers would need.”

With many employees financing their buses through credit companies, they were also not eligible for the various loan moratoriums that have been offered during the pandemic.

Ashfar said many restructuring options outlined by the government were not accessible to drivers.

“One of the conditions was that your company had to be profitable to be eligible. Many bus companies are not very profitable to begin with, and with everything that has happened during the pandemic there are very few that are still in the black and able to apply.”

“There are also fees attached to the restructuring, of 0.5% per annum of the total value of the loan amount, which at a time like this is another burden for drivers.”

As a result, he said only around a quarter had applied for restructuring.

Ashfar said he remains hopeful that they will be able to operate again soon, with vaccinations increasing and restrictions on travel to ease in Phase 3 of the National Recovery Plan.

“We’re hopeful that we can get the aid we need, and with more people getting vaccinated every day we are optimistic that the worst of the pandemic will soon be over and we can get our buses back on the road again.”

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