MOT Developing Database System For Express, Tour Bus Drivers

The Ministry of Transport will establish a comprehensive database of express and tour bus drivers, including their histories.

Its minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook announced that the Land Public Transport Agency will develop this system, enabling bus companies to evaluate driver backgrounds before hiring, thus enhancing public transportation safety.



"Currently, in our system, we do not have a database that covers all drivers. We only have their licensing [details], but whether or not they have any previous records, the companies that hire them have no references.

"In the system, perhaps a driver who did not carry out his responsibilities properly and was sacked from company A, he may go to company B…so, drivers lacking in integrity are still on the market,” he says.

This follows Monday's deadly collision involving students from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) where 15 were killed when the chartered bus carrying them from Jertih to the main campus in Tanjung Malim, overturned after colliding with an MPV along the East-West Highway.



Speaking of the initiative, Transport consultant Wan Agyl Wan Hassan praised the transport ministry's new central database for tracking reckless bus drivers, calling it a critical step forward following recent tragedies.

However, he emphasized that the system must be seamlessly integrated with the Kejara demerit and traffic summons systems. 

This integration, according to him, is essential to automatically bar drivers with unresolved high-risk offenses from renewing their licenses or being assigned work, he stated. 


“The goal should be to prevent unsafe drivers from getting behind the wheel in the first place; not just penalise them after a tragedy occurs,” he says, adding that the platform's development should involve public-private collaboration between government agencies, enforcement, and industry players with existing resources.