The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday expressed reservations about using vehicle age as a standard to remove tour buses from the roads, saying that it is not the only factor affecting transportation safety.
Tour bus safety has become a top concern following fatal incidents involving tour buses, including a Feb. 14, 2017, crash that killed 33 people and injured 11 on the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway (Freeway No. 5) in Taipei’s Muzha (木柵) area.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday, lawmakers proposed amendments to the Highway Act (公路法) to enhance tour bus safety.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Wu (吳志揚) said that the ministry should set up a mechanism that looks at vehicle age, mileage, maintenance records and other criteria to determine whether a bus should be removed from service.
People First Party Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said that tour bus operators given C or D grades for performance should be ordered to address problems or be forced to partially cease operations.
The ministry could also cancel business licenses if operators are found to have overworked drivers, Lee said.
The ministry said that it does not use vehicle age as a criterion to manage tour buses, because it is not the only factor that affects safety, which has more to do with maintenance, driver behavior and frequency of bus use.
Current regulations are already stricter than what the legislators proposed, it said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said that the nation has 27 tour bus operators whose performance has been rated below C in two or more consecutive evaluations.
“Does the Directorate-General of Highways [DGH] have a mechanism to suspend their services?” Yeh asked.
Operators that voluntarily install safety equipment on buses should pay a lower business license tax, she added.
Tour bus operators receiving a C or D grade does mean that they have failed an evaluation, the DGH said, adding that the evaluations focus on service quality.
They would be fined immediately and asked to address the issues within a designated period if they are found to have breached the regulations, it said.
The DGH increases inspections on such operators, it said.
The Tourism Bureau has banned operators with a C or D rating from accepting group bookings, the DGH said.
It has canceled business licenses for four tour bus operators, while five have been asked to partially suspend operations, it said.
Although it is the Ministry of Labor’s responsibility to determine whether an operator has overworked its drivers, if an operator did not fulfill its obligations in managing its fleet, the DGH would look at canceling its business license and revoking its tour bus licenses, the agency said.
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