Van providers seeing a drop in students

JOHOR BARU: Transborder school van providers are seeing a drop of as much as 15% in the number of students travelling between here and Singapore in recent years.

A spokesman for Superman School Van, one of the main providers of such a service, said they ferried more than 400 students on 26 buses across the Causeway daily.

The woman, who declined to be named, said the figure dropped by about 15% compared to the last few years.

“This is in stark contrast to the number of Malaysians seeking employment there, which has seen a significant increase and they (workers) are the ones contributing to the massive congestion on the Causeway every day,” she said in an interview.

She said that the average time to get across the border took up to two hours per trip, which meant that the children would spend about four hours in the bus every day.

“Naturally, most parents prefer to send their children to schools nearer the Causeway for a minimal travel time but we have students studying in Yishun, which is about 20km from Johor Baru,” she said.

She said the earliest pick-up time was at 4am and her bus drivers reached home, latest by 8.45pm, daily.

School buses need to reach the Johor Baru checkpoint by 5.30am, otherwise they would get stuck in traffic despite these vehicles being allocated special lanes. At the Malaysian checkpoint, the school vans and buses can ease through after having their passports scanned but at the Singapore checkpoint in Woodlands, students have to alight the vehicle for immigration checks.

Quek Kim Chuah, who runs Doraemon school van, said that a few years back, they ferried more than 100 students from various parts of Johor Baru but the number of children has dropped to about 90 students now.

Besides Malaysian students, those utilising his van service were Singaporeans living in Johor, Singapore permanent resident (PR) holders and expatriates.

“The main reason parents stopped sending their children to school in Singapore is the high exchange rate and with the republic reviewing the school fees every two years, they are finding it difficult to cope financially,” he said.

He said van fees varied between RM500 and RM600, depending on where the students lived and the fees had also been revised from time to time to suit the current situation, such as fuel prices and the increase in toll fares at the checkpoints.

After dropping off the students, drivers would hang around in parks and coffee shops in Singapore before picking them up again at about 2pm.