KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — They brave the dark and hundreds of kilometres of road to get their passengers to their destination. 

These are the “midnight bus drivers” — a term they have coined for themselves. They also look out for one another, whether on or off the road. 

“Wherever we work, there is always a small community and for us, we tend to look out for one another. We will meet up after work to talk about anything including personal matters. On the road, we look out for each other,” said Johari Abdul Jalil, who has been driving midnight routes for over 30 years.

Fondly known as Pak Ngah, he always prays for safety and protection before each journey. 

“I will always pray for my safety during my journey as well as for the passengers on board. All of us (bus drivers) know the risks of this job, but I do it because I love driving at night,” said the 52-year-old. 

“It’s peaceful and soothing to the soul, completely different from driving during the day.”

Johari said only about 30 per cent of passengers showed appreciation to drivers after a long journey, and many walked out the bus without a word. 

“Bus drivers are human beings too. People often do not see what happens during the journey and take us for granted,” he said. 

“We hear aircraft pilots being thanked for their service, we bus drivers do not receive any but yet are blamed when an accident happens.” 

Johari said it was never the driver’s intention to get into an accident especially since they too had families and responsibilities of their own.

“Nobody wants to die,” he said. 

The journeys normally take eight to nine hours to towns like Padang Besar, Butterworth, Hadyaai and Singapore, with breaks in between. 

Another midnight bus driver for over 20 years, Mohd Yusof Abd Kudus, 49, never lets his personal issues get in the way of his job. 

“It’s a ‘disease’ which can possibly endanger the lives of those on board,” he said. 

He said the drivers, like himself, would always ensure that they got enough rest before embarking on a midnight journey. 

“We’ve been practising this since the day we started working. We know the risks if we are unfit to drive, and we will choose not to work if we’re sick that night,” he said.

“If we are tired during the journey, our co-driver (who rests during the journey) will take over.” 

Mohd Amran, 31, who has been driving for almost six years, said he was familiar with the roads and their conditions after driving across the states. 

“Every bus driver who has driven for more than six months will know that road conditions after Taiping are usually unfavourable, as they are bumpy and uneven,” he said. 

“And we take extra precaution, especially when approaching these ‘unfavourable’ roads, because our safety is also at stake.”

Mohd Amran said midnight bus drivers hardly sped and it was only a misinterpretation by passengers that they did.

“Most of them are usually half-asleep during the journey that even if I were driving at 40kph, when they look out the window and see the ‘moving’ roads and trees, they’ll think that I’m speeding,” he said.