We refer to the Malaysiakini report Hazards in toll-free night driving .

Firstly, while we appreciate your using the Plus logo to accompany a story that highlights toll- free travel, we would like to point out that it could be viewed as misleading by your readers because Plus Expressways Berhad does not provide toll-free travel incentives during festive seasons but rather discounts on regular toll fares.

For your readers’ information, since January 2009 Plus has been giving a 10 percent discount every day of the week for Class 1 vehicles exiting our highway between 12 midnight and 7am. As an example, if someone going to Johor Bahru enters the highway at Sg Besi toll plaza at 9pm and exits the highway at Skudai toll plaza at 12.01am, he or she is entitled to the 10 percent discount.

In the same way, if someone enters the highway at 6am and exits at 6.59am, he or she also gets a 10 percent discount. This incentive which has been implemented on all days has been well received by users who choose to travel at a later time at night, or early in the morning.

Based on the same model, as an added incentive during festive seasons namely Deepavalli, Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, Christmas and Chinese New Year, Plus gives an additional 10 percent discount on six selected days thus making it a discount of approximately 20 percent during these festive seasons.

One of the reasons why we provide this incentive is to distribute the traffic on the North-South Expressway and to improve service level so that highway users may enjoy better traffic flow. With this incentive, users have a choice of travelling during peak hours or capitalise on the incentive and travel during the off-peak periods.

Nonetheless, we continue to remind users to always respect their own limits and the limitations of their vehicles; if they are not capable of driving at night or their vehicle is not in a condition that allows for safe travel at night, they should refrain from doing so.

We also take this opportunity to emphasise that the toll discount incentive was introduced at Plus’s own initiative in January 2009 without any directive from the government and to-date Plus has spent close to RM20 million in discounts to our highway users.

We are sure you can appreciate that as a public listed company, Plus has a list of different stakeholder interests to cater for which includes our highway users. Therefore, the interests of all parties have to be balanced when incentives like toll discounts are given.

Regarding highways not being well-lit and unsafe for night driving, we would like to emphasise that our highways are built to established standards for 24-hour travel. Lightings are placed at strategic locations namely at interchanges, toll plazas, the Sg Besi to Senawang stretch, NKVE, Elite highway, rest areas and lay-bys.

We believe there is no inter-urban highway in the world that is fully lit from end-to-end and accidents can happen as much in the daytime as during the night if safe driving techniques and proper vehicle maintenance are not followed.

Plus Expressways Berhad would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’ and all the best in the Year of the Tiger.

The writer is general manager, Corporate Communications, Plus.