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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that his team and the JPJ were confident that all these issues could be resolved before the Oct 1 deadline.
“Certain users are worried, so they panic and blame the system. But we will work with them to allay those concerns,” he added.
Malaysian authorities say the VEP is aimed at combating car theft and cloning syndicates and preventing vehicles from leaving the country without paying fines for traffic violations.
Malaysia initially hoped to begin implementing the VEP in October 2019 under then-Transport Minister Leong Tiong Lai. However, the implementation of the plan has been delayed several times due to technical issues with the portal and poor implementation of land checkpoints during the pilot project, which caused traffic congestion.
The driver was unable to resolve the issue
Like Mr Chiu, Singaporean Ben Lee was also unable to apply for a VEP for a second-hand car he bought in 2022 because it was registered in the system under the name of the previous owner.
The 49-year-old technical salesman needs to drive from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh in Malaysia every two weeks to meet with clients, so solving this problem is crucial to his job, he said.
“If you look at Malaysia’s history, it has always wanted to implement the VEP but then kept postponing it, which was a failed decision and it may fail again this time,” said Mr Lee.
He told CNA that he hopes the deadline can be extended beyond Oct. 1 so that he can have more time to contact the car’s former owner.
He added: “They may extend it again or not implement it at all.”
Mr Seah Kim Por, 71, operations director of an electronics company, told CNA that he applied for the VEP in 2019 and it will expire in October 2024.
He told CNA that the JPJ portal does not have a section for users to renew their VEP applications. He has sent multiple emails to JPJ but has yet to receive any response.
He added: “I was one of the few diligent drivers who applied for the service in 2019, but now I may not be able to travel after October due to this.”
“For me, it should be much easier to extend it and not have to worry about it. You want to implement something but you don’t want to make it too easy for those who have signed up long ago,” Mr Seah said.
Another Singaporean facing problems is private taxi driver Ms Nooriyana Saleh. The 34-year-old told CNA that she was unable to register her car because it was rented from a rental company.
“I don’t own the car so my rental company has to do it, but they haven’t done it yet. I don’t know what to do,” she said, adding that she goes into Johor Bahru every week.
CNA contacted some rental companies in Singapore to ask if they would be willing to apply for VEP on behalf of their clients.
Current Leasing, a company that rents out vehicles to private-hire drivers, including those from regional platform Gojek, told CNA that only 30% of its renters enter Malaysia, adding that it plans to work with JPJ to ensure that drivers who need VEPs are not inconvenienced.
However, Current Leasing general manager Shaun Lee told CNA that the application process was difficult as the requirements were “neither strict nor flexible” and therefore the company was unable to complete the registration process for its fleet.
Mr Lee explained that, for example, JPJ requires each vehicle to be linked to a TouchNGo e-wallet, but this is challenging as companies would be administratively constrained as they would need to open an e-wallet account for each vehicle.
“This is not practical because it either means we have to create the same number of e-wallets as the number of vehicles, or we just use one e-wallet for all cars and run the risk of not knowing how much money has accumulated for each car,” said Mr Lee.
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