PETALING JAYA: Commercial vehicle licences for about 600 express buses in peninsular Malaysia will be suspended as the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) d iscovered that the buses did not have GPS installed. SPAD revealed the results of its audit of 164 express bus companies in the peninsula, which showed that only 112 companies had installed GPS in their buses. “Of these, only 57 companies had GPS in all their express buses while 27 companies had fixed the system in over 50% of their buses. About 28 companies had GPS in less than half their buses. “A total of 52 express bus companies were still operating without GPS or any speed limit monitoring equipment ,” it said in a statement yesterday. It was also revealed that only 27 companies had continuous and comprehensive monitoring of their buses’ speed limit via GPS while 22 companies did so at selected times and 63 companies had no GPS monitoring control room. “According to the industry code of practice, licences can be revoked until the companies follow the conditions placed and install the monitoring equipment. The suspensions will be enforced on June 7 until GPS installations have been completed,” the sta tement read. SPAD said the time frame of two weeks had been given so that companies would have time to install the equipment without causing too much inconvenience to bus passengers. The commission’s audit team also found that bus operators’ willingness to carry out continuous speed monitoring was still at a low level while some companies only installed GPS in their buses to fulfil licensing conditions. Rresources : The Star