CNI News
15 August 2022
Highway bus services are encountering a situation which forces them to suspend operations if authorities continue to ban parcel transportation, according to owners of highway bus services.
It was learnt that authorities had banned parcel transportation on highway buses running between Yangon and other states and regions for security reasons, highway bus service owners said.
Currently, highway bus services had to rely on parcel transportation as the number of passengers has decreased to only one-third of previous levels. So, all highway bus services will be forced to suspend their operations if parcel transportation is prohibited further, an incharge of a highway bus service in Aung Mingalar Highway Bus Terminal, told the CNI.
Inspection of parcels on highway buses. (GETTY IMAGES)
He said, “How can we survive? The number of passengers has dropped to one-third or 30 percent of previous levels. Highway buses managed to survive with only a few passengers because they earned from parcel transportation. Sometimes, there were only three to five passengers on a highway bus. It costs about MMK 2 million to operate a trip with higher fuel prices. If we are not allowed to transport parcels, we cannot survive.”
Highway bus services based at Aung Mingalar Highway Bus Terminal, Dagon Ayar Highway Bus Terminal and Aung San Stadium Highway Bus Terminal have never been permitted to carry out parcel transportation and they are allowed to transport luggages carried by passengers, according to Yangon Region Public Transport Committee.
Although parcel transportation is not officially permitted, the committee was not able to prohibit it effectively but the restrictions were imposed for security reasons, said Lyan Cin Mang, the joint secretary of the YRTC.
Aung Mingalar Highway Bus Terminal. (Myanmar Time)
He said, “Highway bus services have never been permitted to carry out parcel transportation. Their business licenses were issued for transportation not of parcels but of passengers. They are allowed to transport luggages carried by passengers. However, they were not told not to do so in the past. Now, percel transportation is prohibited for security reasons by security authorities not by the YRTC. This has nothing to do with the YRTC,” he told the CNI.
Highway bus services are also facing difficulties as no instructions were issued for parcel transportation through checkpoints in other towns.
If authorities do not permit highway bus services to carry out parcel transportation, the public will have to use freight transportation services in Bayintnaung Freight Terminal and other freight trucks.
