JPJ acts against illegal drivers

Foreigners are not allowed to drive commercial vehicles and the Road Transport Department (JPJ) has nabbed 166 of them for doing just that in the Klang Valley this year.

They were caught for driving such vehicles without a goods vehicle driving licence.

JPJ enforcement director Datuk Valluvan Veloo said the mostly Indonesian and Myanmar nationals involved were driving lorries carrying fish and vegetables, among others.

“Foreigners are not allowed to drive any commercial vehicles. The only licence that allows foreigners to drive in this country is a competent driving licence, which is for non-commercial vehicles.

“Since January, we have caught 166 foreigners driving commercial vehicles. We have issued 352 summonses for various offences and 168 vehicles have been seized,” said Valluvan at a press conference yesterday.

He said the JPJ had also been carrying out several joint operations with the Immigration Department.

This week, the JPJ and the Immigration Department raided the Selangor wholesale market and caught 90 illegals.
Five of them were caught driving commercial vehicles during the 3am raid.

“They were also illegals and did not have valid documents on them. We handed them over to the Immigration Department for further action.

“We conduct more joint raids with the Immigration Department. Such joint operations will send a strong message to employers to not hire illegals and also not to allow foreign workers to drive commercial vehicles.

“We do not want accidents involving non-licensed foreigners. So this has to stop,” said Valluvan.

Immigration enforcement director Datuk Jaafar Mohammed, who was also present at the press conference, said his department would organise similar joint operations with the JPJ at the state level.

He also said his department had conducted 4,348 raids on illegals between Jan 1 and May 15 and nabbed 27,534 illegals.

Based on statistics of the department’s enforcement raids since 2014, Jaafar said about 70% of illegals were caught for not possessing valid documents.

This was followed by misuse of visit pass (16%), overstaying (10%) and having false documents (4%).