Reining in speeding drivers

NST Online 2009/08/09

WHEN was the last time you saw an express bus barrelling past you on the highway at more than 130kph?

The GPS trackers allow bus companies to monitor the speed and route of their buses to avoid horrific accidents like this.

If you do, it certainly won't be a bus that has a GPS (Global Positioning System) device installed.

Konsortium Bas Ekspress is one such company that has fitted GPS trackers on its fleet of 200 buses.

Its director, S.K. Lau, said before that one of his drivers had done over 130 kph on the highway (the speed indicated on the traffic summons).

Since then, Lau said the company had seen a huge reduction in speeding among its drivers.

"The most important was controlling speed," said Lau.

"We tried imposing a penalty for speeding, but this was not very successful and hard to implement."

Now the company can monitor the speed of all its buses anytime of the day, in any part of the country.

To encourage drivers to keep to speed limits, the company provides a financial incentive.

"If we fined them for speeding before, now we provide an incentive of RM10 for each journey completed without speeding."

With GPS, the company can also track if the buses follow the determined route.

"We now know which rest area they stop at and how long.

"We even know what time they switch the engine off and on," Lau said.

Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board chairman Datuk Halimah Sadique said at present the GPS was a requirement only for buses with newly issued licences, or when a bus is due for replacement after it is 10 years old.

Halimah said in the event a driver was suspected to have broken the law or was involved in an accident, data collected from the GPS device would be handed to the police and Road Transport Department.