The Transport Ministry’s proposal to register all private vehicles ferrying students does not involve parents sending or fetching their children to school, says its minister Anthony Loke.

Commenting on parents’ misunderstandings about the proposal, he said the move was aimed at regulating private vehicles especially vans that were used to ferry many students that were not subjected to the law.

“For parents who are sending or fetching their children to school or their children getting a lift from the neighbour, they don’t need to register.

“We only targeting private vehicles like vans ferrying 15 to 20 students at any one time and currently unregistered,” he told a news conference after the ministry’s monthly assembly, here today.

Loke said the approach that would implemented would be similar to the method used on e-hailing services, but the mechanism still need to be fine-tuned.

He added that the registration of the private vehicles was aimed at providing space for them to operate legally.

“We will like to see the implementation by next year and the mechanism will be discussed with the Land Public Transport Agency,” he said.

Loke said the proposal was mooted following complaints from school bus operators who were affected by activities carried out by private vehicles.

Yesterday, Loke was reportedly to have said that his ministry would be implementing a whitening process for unregistered school bus operators without valid permits, the latest by next year.

He said the implementation was to ensure that every school bus company had a valid permit besides ensuring school students using their services covered by insurance.

- Bernama