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3 May 2016
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The Rakyat Post
More stage bus route services may stop
JOHOR BARU, 2 May 2016:
The Johor Bus Operators Association today urged the federal government to continue with disbursements under the Interim Stage Bus Support Fund (ISBSF) to enable the bus services involved to continue their operations.
Its president Jotisrop Suchdav said a total of 16 bus companies within the state faced losses since all of them did not receive the distribution of funds involved from the Land and Public Transport Commission (SPAD), for the past four months.
“We are concerned as the last date in which we received the funds was Dec 31 last year, and subsequently, we had to use our savings to manage our bus operations.
“If we don’t get the funds, the bus services will have to stop as we have no other financial source, and we are facing problems in paying wage increases to be implemented on July 1.”
Suchdav said they did not want to follow the footsteps of several bus service companies in Kelantan, Pahang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan that have ceased bus service operations as they were unable to bear the cost of their bus operations.
He said, currently, a total of 600 buses were operated by 16 companies within this state that used the 50 main routes.
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Malay Mail Online
Friday deadline for suspension of Johor bus services
JOHOR BARU, May 3 — Stage bus operators in the state may stop services by Friday.
Johor Bus Operators Association (JBOA) president Jotisrop Suchdav said yesterday they can no longer cope with losses incurred in operating stage buses.
“If stage buses stop operating in Johor, don’t blame us,” he said.
Jotisrop said the government used to subsidise losses sustained by operators over the past two years with amounts ranging from RM10,000 to RM30,000 a month.
Since December last year, payments under the Interim Stage Bus Scheme Fund (ISBSF) stopped with the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) telling the association funds would no longer be given.
“We cannot go on under such circumstances. We operate along what we call the social routes. There is no profit from such services as they serve less travelled routes with few passengers,” he said, adding the routes include Gelang Patah to Johor Baru, Pontian to Pekan Nanas and Endau to Mersing.
Jotisrop said his company, S&S, had 100 stage buses operating in the state besides an express bus service to major towns nationwide.
“The losses will keep mounting for our members if we continue to operate stage buses without financial help from the government. We cannot afford to incur such losses any longer since the payment under the ISBSF stopped four months ago.
He estimated that the association members carried about 100,000 passengers including schoolchildren daily.
He said the government’s reluctance to allow bus companies to increase fares was the root of the problem.
“The last fare increase was in 2008. Since then, the price of diesel has gone up, wages have increased and inflation has hit us. There is also the six per cent GST we have to absorb when buying spare parts and tyres,” he said.
Jotisrop said fares should increase by 24 per cent taking into account that inflation was at three per cent a year besides other accumulated costs over the past eight years.
He said it cost at least RM8,000 a month to maintain a bus excluding monthly instalments for the purchase of the vehicle.
Jotisrop said the fares ranged from 90 sen to RM3.
“Our operating costs are higher than the fares we collect. We cannot go on like this.”
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weehingthong 