Bigger salary can help reduce road crash, says Manyin

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KUCHING: Bus operators in the state should increase their drivers’ salaries as one of the ways to indirectly reduce road accidents. Higher salaries would also boost their workers’ morale.

DRIVER’S WELFARE: Manyin (centre) together with Rano (second right) during the press conference after the ‘Defensive Driving’ seminar for bus drivers yesterday.

Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communication Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong, who made the suggestion yesterday, believed that a higher pay might just do the trick in motivating the drivers to practise safe driving.

“Operators should pay a bit more to the drivers to make them happy. When drivers are happy, the passengers will also be happy because drivers will be more motivated to serve them better, especially when it comes to road safety,” said Manyin, who is also the chairman of Sarawak Road Safety Council.

He, however, acknowledged that the salary review would not be an easy task because many operators were struggling to make ends meet due to the low passenger load.

“Of course it will not be very easy for them to increase their drivers’ salary because it

depends on the revenue they collect and also maintenance costs,” he told reporters after opening a ‘Defensive Driving’ seminar for bus drivers at a hotel here.

Meanwhile, State Road Safety Department (JKJR) director Rano Alwino Akat said the department planned to introduce compulsory road safety refreshment courses for bus drivers in five to 10 years time.

“JKJR, in the long term, is trying to come out with measures whereby drivers will have to go for compulsory safety refreshment courses after certain number of years.

“We are trying to emulate benchmarking practises from companies like Shell which made it compulsory for their tanker drivers to undergo refreshers course after a certain period.

“We hope that this will reduce the number of bus accidents,” he said.

He also said that currently bus operators and drivers practise self-regulation based on road safety guidelines given by authorities such as JKJR, Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (LPKP) and Department of Safety and Health (DOSH).

The one-day seminar was organised by Malaysian Road Safety Council (MKJR) Sarawak, Midcom, Sarawak Shell Berhad and Arasa Consultant.