Bye Bye Abandoned Vehicles

Transport minister Anthony Loke has announced that amendments will be made to the Road Transport Act that will widen the scope of operation for both the Road Transport Department (JPJ) and nine city mayors, which includes allowing them to deregister and remove abandoned vehicles.

Loke said the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill 2018 will be tabled in Parliament today, and the minister hopes the changes are passed and gazetted for enforcement by Jan 2019. With the amendments, nine city mayors in Peninsular Malaysia will be able to remove abandoned vehicles that are parked on public roads. It was previously reported that there are more than eight million abandoned vehicles across the country, which has become a real problem as they are both a nuisance and an eyesore to others.

“Currently, we only have the vehicle registration process. With the amendments, it will better facilitate the vehicle de-registration process. This will help address the problem of abandoned vehicles. Many local councils are facing this problem in many residential areas,” said Loke, who added that local councils can’t tow away abandoned vehicles that are still registered.

Revisions to the Act will also see JPJ be allowed to deregister cars with tampered chassis numbers. The department will also be responsible for regulating and collecting fees on approvals for glass tinting above the allowed limits for vehicles, with exemptions for those who require special tinting due to their medical conditions.

The government has expressed its intent to deal with the issue in the past, stating that it would come up with a new standard operating procedure to deal with abandoned cars, including shortening the notice time down to one month, and implementing deregistration certificates for registered abandoned vehicles.

Other matters that will be approved include allowing nine city councils to appoint their own uniformed traffic wardens to deal with the traffic situation in their respective cities – Ipoh, Alor Star, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Penang, Johor Bahru, Melaka, Kuala Terengganu and Iskandar Puteri. Loke also noted the government is looking to impose a nominal fee on car manufacturers for the Vehicle Type Approval (VTA) process.