Puspakom has no power to stop commercial vehicles from using “cosmetic agents” to help pass inspections

Increased enforcement activity against commercial vehicles of late has unearthed enough cases of non-compliance, with poor condition tyres one of the recurring issues. Given that such vehicles need to undergo regular inspections, shouldn’t these be caught early and prevented from potentially causing the mayhem that we seem to be reading about every other day?

Well, not quite, when subterfuge is at work in the form of tyre rentals, which allow commercial vehicles being inspected by Puspakom to easily pass tyre-related tests during the evaluation.

This is something beyond the vehicle inspection company’s operating scope, said its CEO Mahmood Razak Bahman. He explained that Puspakom has no power to act against owners of commercial vehicles who rent tyres from “cosmetic agents” so their vehicles can pass inspections at its centres, as FMT reports.

He condemned such services as being irresponsible and harmful towards road users. “Commercial vehicle users must be transparent during inspections and be aware that renting tyres can threaten the safety of all road users,” he said.

He was commenting on the call by transport consultant Rosli Azad Khan for the government to tackle the problem of “cosmetic agents” in the transport industry, following posts being made about such tyre rental services on social media.

Mahmood said Puspakom welcomes any action from the road transport department (JPJ) to tackle the issue and eradicate such activity. “Puspakom does not compromise in its vehicle inspections. For example, more than 220,000 out of 2.8 million commercial vehicles fail Puspakom inspections every year,” he told the publication.

Of course, things aren’t looking exactly watertight during inspections, as shown by the results of Op Mengejut Puspakom, in which JPJ carried out surprise checks on Puspakom centres nationwide yesterday.

During the operation, JPJ personnel inspected 115 lorries, issued 69 summonses and took action against 29 vehicles, also seizing five cars and two lorries in the process, Several offences by lorry drivers were identified, including the use of unsafe, worn-out retreaded tyres. It was also reported that two Puspakom staff from the comapny’s Wangsa Maju branch have been summoned to provide statements to JPJ.

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