Transport Minister Anthony Loke has announced that Puspakom will lose its monopoly as the sole provider of periodic motor vehicle inspection services. This change will take effect beginning 1 September 2024, opening the way for other firms to offer the service to motorists.
The minister stated that the decision was made during a Cabinet meeting on 17 March. This means that starting next September, other qualified companies would also be allowed to provide the vehicle inspection service on behalf of the Road Transport Department (JPJ).
If you’re wondering what the alternatives will be, the process of inviting private companies to offer this service has not begun yet, so we don’t know which firms exactly will be rivalling Puspakom. He said that this process is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2024 at the latest.
Loke added that the decision was in line with the government’s desire to create a competitive service environment and to make it easier for people to deal with such tasks. This announcement is just one of several major overhauls that the Ministry of Transport has made in recent months.
For one thing, the JPJ has now adopted a digital road tax and driving license system in lieu of physical stickers and cards. For now, only private Malaysian drivers qualify to use them but the department is working on extending the digital system to foreign and commercial drivers eventually.
Loke claimed that adopting digital road tax and driving licenses would save the government RM96 million per year in printing costs. Of course, it would also help reduce the congestion in JPJ branches and save motorists a lot of time.
To support these massive changes, JPJ updated its app with a new interface as well as an extra layer of security using the last eight figures from the back of your driver’s licence. This method can now also be used for account recovery.
(Source: Bernama)
