KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Federation of School Bus Associations Malaysia president Amali Munif Rahmat has warned that more operators may be forced to “close shop” by early next year.
He told news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) that bus operators have been unable to meet basic operational costs due to school closures as well as the implementation of the conditional movement control order (CMCO).
Amali added that operational costs amount to at least RM7,000 a month even during school holidays.
He also said that parents have been reluctant to pay monthly fares in full ever since the CMCO began.
“Even though it is the school holidays, starting from this CMCO, parents have refused to pay the full monthly fare.”
"If calculated as a whole from the beginning of the year, we only received a maximum payment of six months. For the remaining six months of this year, we will not be getting any payment,” he was quoted as saying by FMT.
“School bus operators have a fixed monthly operational cost, applicable even during school holidays, and if these commitments are not met, chances are the operator in question will be forced to cease operations.”
In the same report, Amali claimed that when schools reopened in July, ridership on school buses dropped by as much as 30 per cent, because parents prefer to do the school run now due to Covid-19 fears.
“Another aftereffect of school closures is we have received feedback from bus operators nationwide that almost 30 per cent have decided to stop their service.
"Some have already sold their buses. If schools do not reopen on January 20, we expect many more bus operators to ‘close shop’,” he added.
Education minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin announced on November 8 that schools and vocational colleges will be closed during the CMCO in an attempt to flatten the Covid-19 curve nationwide.
Malaysia had been under the recovery movement control order (RMCO) since June 10 with this phase expected to end on December 31, but many states have now seen CMCO re-imposed amid a recent surge in Covid-19 cases.
