A list of 100 one-day bus tours that will require two drivers has been compiled and tour operators must follow this requirement if they offer any of the trips during the 228 Memorial Day long weekend that begins on Saturday, the Tourism Bureau announced yesterday.
The working hours of tour bus drivers have come under scrutiny in the wake of a bus crash on Monday last week that killed 33 people, amid claims that the bus driver had been working almost every day since Lunar New Year’s Eve.
Bureau officials are to meet with representatives from the Travel Quality Assurance Association, various travel associations and consumer protection agencies today to review the one-day tours on offer to consumers, Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰) said.
“We will focus on those one-day tours that should have been designed as two-day tours, such as tours to Qingjing Farm in Nantou County, Wuling Farm in Taichung, Smangus Village of Atayal Aborigines in Hsinchu County or Alishan. Drivers on these tours could be overworked if they are asked to drive back and forth in one day,” Chang said.
Chang said the bureau would announce the 100 one-day tours that will require two bus drivers before the start of the holiday weekend.
Tour operators can either have two bus drivers on board, or have one driver drive to a designated location and then have another driver cover the rest of the tour, he said.
If tour operators cannot arrange for two drivers for any of the tours, they must have their clients use public transport for the trip, such as the high-speed rail, Chang said.
Asked if such a requirement would increase company costs and tour prices, Chang said safety is top priority, even if it means that travelers have to pay more for tours.
Tour operators should not condense two days’ worth of travel into one day; if they want to offer one-day tours, they must have two drivers per tour, he said.
Consumers could always choose a destination closer to home if they think two-day tours are expensive, he said.
“Following [today’s] meeting, we will also ask tour operators to list a reasonable price range for any of the 100 tours for consumers’ reference,” Chang said, adding that the bureau would release the information to the public.
The bureau would also work with the Directorate-General of Highways and local labor department officials to conduct random inspections of tour buses during the 228 holiday, particularly at popular scenic spots nationwide, Chang said.
Directorate-General of Highways Deputy Chief Engineer Lin Fu-shan (林福山) said inspections over the 228 holiday would focus on tour bus companies that earned “C” or “D” grades last year.
The ministry is also scheduled to recall 5,157 tour buses next month that were manufactured before 2006 to address public concerns about the safety of older buses, Lin said.
Owners of tour buses manufactured before 2006 were not required to present documents on the structure of the buses, Lin said.
The vehicles would be examined based on the standards applied to new car inspections, he said.
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