The Land Transport Commission (Spad) and other regulators involved in the integrity of the public transport system and public transport vehicle plying Malaysian roads should be held responsible if errant operators are allowed to operate public transportation.

The general public have no way of knowing if a bus driver or an operator of an express bus has five dozen summonses before they purchase tickets or use their services. The bus checker on the Spad website only shows (through number plate registration) if the use of the bus is given the temporary operating licence (for the recent festive season) and nothing else.

As in the past, the public often find out that buses involved in accidents often had unresolved traffic summonses including the drivers.

What is the benefit of suspending operating licenses after the fact? How did over 60 unresolved summonses go unnoticed? Why was the operator allowed to carry out its operation during the festive season despite so many traffic violations?

According to Spad (website), there are more than 100 operators offering express bus services to the public and they come under the jurisdiction of the commission. Spad acts as the regulator for these operators, and monitor issues like touting, speeding, reckless driving, route and scheduled adherence.

As we are not regulators we can only give strong voice to the Malaysian public by demanding that Spad pursue compensation to all owners of vehicles involved in the accident last Sunday. Spad must strengthen monitoring and surveillance of all public transport operators and their vehicles (including school buses and commercial vehicles).

We hope the Performance Monitoring Hub System (PMHS) by Spad is up and running full-scale very soon to avoid further untoward incidents and loss of lives. Violators should be listed for other agencies such as the Road Transport Commission (JPJ) and the traffic division of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) to support surveillance programmes.

Highway operators should also lend support for this purpose to convey information of buses under surveillance and have mechanism like in the United States to assess the speed of the buses at several points along the highway.

A media report pointed out that the despite suspension the operator involved in the accident last Sunday (July 10, 2016) is still operating. This begs the question - who enforces the suspension order and ensures compliance with the order?

We hope consumers or the general public at large keep the pressure on express ad commercial vehicle operators to behave responsibly on the road by immediately reporting reckless driving behaviour to Spad. Voicing out displeasure over services rendered and coming together in solidarity against poor service providers are among the five global responsibilities of consumers.

Let’s do it and let’s make regulators and operators carry out their functions to fulfill our rights as consumers to safe and sustainable public transport services for all.

PROFESSOR DR MARIMUTHU NADASON is president, Malaysian Association of Standards Users.