Careful drivers will get discounts on their insurance premium starting from January, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

Through this initiative, drivers who don’t have traffic offence will be rewarded with lower insurance premium or additional discount on their No Claim Bonus (NCB), Loke (photo) said.

He said the process of updating and sharing of driver information from the record system of Mysikap of the Road Transport Department (RTD) and the Police (PDRM) is now in the final stage.

He said discussions were also held with the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM) which also agreed for the move to be implemented to raise safety level on the road.

“All mechanisms needed to provide discounts are in the final stage of preparation and will be announced by the end of the year,” he told reporters after chairing the 60th Road Safety Council of Malaysia annual general meeting in Sepang today.

Loke said his ministry will regulate school van services which are unlicensed with the introduction of a special regulation based on the framework provided by the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD) and RTD.

He said the ministry is now in the process of determining the implementation mechanism regulations, which among others are similar to the e-hailing driver.

“The regulations should be practical as the government is aware of the lack of school buses in rural areas,” he said.

He, however, stressed the need that regulations are only for school vans and not private cars.

Yesterday, a newspaper reported there are more than 50,000 vans, MPVs and cars operating illegally to ferry school and pre-school pupils nationwide even though the issue had been frequently raised.

- Bernama