CMCO: School bus can take factory workers to work

The government has allowed school buses to bring factory workers to work, said Senior Minister (Security Cluster), Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said the permission was to help school bus operators who suffered losses during the school closure following the outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

“We understand that the school bus operators are incurring losses as there is no income from the services provided in the past.

"If previously the factory bus was operating at full capacity, now the capacity is half and it is not enough to send the workers on time as they cannot deliver simultaneously, it may be necessary to make two or three rounds.

“So, the Ministry of Transport has decided that a factory bus can use the school bus to send factory workers.

"This is to help low-income school bus operators by turning their buses into factory buses while schools are still closed," he told a media conference here on Wednesday.

Ismail Sabri said school bus operators should not charge bus fare to parents as there are currently no services provided during the school closure.

In another development, he said the government had received complaints about rising public transport fares during the duration of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

He said the Ministry of Transport also informed that the ticket price for flights has gone up double.

“We get complaints from public transport operators because they have to cut half of the actual passenger capacity.

"We also understand that the cost of airfare to London for an economy class ticket is RM8,000 but usually the fares are less than that," he said.

Therefore, he said, the Ministry of Transport would present a proposal to resolve the issue at a meeting in the near future.