More than 100 tour bus operators and drivers yesterday rallied outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei to protest a government policy requiring them to install a GPS device on their vehicles, which they said is designed to monitor their location and could compromise their operational safety.
Lee Shih-chia (李式嘉), chairman of the New Taipei City Touring-bus Craft Union for Drivers, said they are not against having GPS installed in their vehicles.
However, they oppose the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) using GPS to collect evidence of traffic violations, he said, adding that those who refuse to be monitored would receive demerits in their performance evaluations.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The agency had originally said that the devices would be used to only collect “big data,” but they are now being used to collect all sorts of information, even drivers’ work hours, Lee said.
Unlike public transportation systems, which should be strictly regulated by the government, tour bus drivers only transport people who hire them, Lee added.
The government should help improve the work environment for tour bus operators, rather than using GPS to harass them, he said.
A GPS device transmits signals through satellites and its accuracy can be affected by the signal strength and weather conditions, Lee said.
This would compromise the system’s ability to ascertain if a bus is traveling on an overpass or a road, measure a vehicle’s speed and send signals reliably, he said, adding that all these situations would trigger signal abnormalities.
“However, DGH officials monitoring the tour buses lack the experience to know the cause of these abnormalities. They ask the drivers to offer an explanation whenever there is a signal abnormality, but they forget that tour bus drivers are using the system as well,” he said.
The DGH oversees motor vehicles, drivers and roads, and it should be focusing on the bigger picture rather than minute details, Lee said, adding that it should let tour bus companies handle issues related to GPS.
The government should stipulate regulations to require tour bus owners to use actual times when registering their buses, he added.
The ministry said that the abnormalities reported by GPS devices are handled in three stages:
First, tour bus operators should monitor the changes themselves, which do not happen every day, and second, officials at motor vehicle offices should rule out some of the deviations if they are determined to be false alarms, it added.
Third, the DGH would be the ultimate overseer of the problems, the ministry said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Shueh-sheng (陳雪生) is to hold a public hearing on cooperatives formed by tour bus operators in the next legislative session, it said, adding that the issues about the GPS requirement can be discussed at the hearing.
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