KOTA KINABALU: Taxi, car rental, school bus and tour bus operators in Sabah are asked to submit their application for the PEMERKASA Plus assistance to the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (CVLB) in Sabah so that they will receive the assistance.
Sabah CVLB chairman Dato Chin Kim Hiung said that the government is aware of the difficulties facing the Sabah drivers due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order 3.0 which is ongoing and jeopardizing their source of income.
“Because of that, I urge all category of drivers, except for the e-hailing, to apply as soon as possible through the CVLB website at http:// www.lpkpksabah.gov.my/pemerkasa/ or through the link available at the CVLB facebook account.
For e-hailing, the names of the drivers will be submitted by their respective e-hailing companies to the CVLB Sabah for screening, he said.
According to Chin, since the start of the application for the assistance, Sabah CVLB has received 176 new applications whereby 81 are for taxi drivers, 48 for car rental drivers, 15 for school bus and 32 for tour bus drivers.
“We are expecting more will register in the nearest future based on the application for assistance record prior to this, whereby we have received 5,262 applications for e-hailing (2,919 passed the screening), 3,394 applications for taxis and car rental (1,910 passed the screening), for the Special Grant Assistance (GKP).
Meanwhile, Sabah CVLB received 444 applications for school bus drivers and 541 applications for tour bus drivers for the Permai Assistance.
“Our of the total, about 400 applications for school bus drivers and 411 applications for tour bus drivers were approved during the screening,” he said.
Chin also reminded taxi and e-hailing drivers in Sabah that are allowed to operate to be sensitive to any changes to the standard operating procedure and regulations issued by the Federal Government, the State and the National Security Council.
“For example, many taxi and e-hailing drivers are confused with the SOP which only allows two people inside the vehicle, including the driver. This means that there is only one passenger allowed in a taxi or e-hailing vehicle except for emergencies,” he said.
“It is important for all parties to be updated on the regulations and SOP by the government so that there is no confusion among the drivers, passengers and enforcers, and they have to face the risk of legal action,” he said.