Are Vehicles From Malaysian Driving Schools Safe To Drive?

Puspakom Inspection

The public may not be aware but the Road Transport Department (R.T.D.) makes it compulsory for vehicles used for driving tuition purposes in its driving institution industry to be inspected once every six months.

Driving institutes vehicles like all other vehicles used in the transport sector, express buses, lorries, trailers, vans and school buses, all have to undergo stringent inspection procedures by the Puspakom authorities from time to time.

Driving institutes or driving schools’ vehicles, which cannot undergo the scheduled check ups will be penalized a sum of RM200. Prior permission has to be obtained from the relevant authorities should a vehicle be unable to make it for an inspection.

The question of a driving school vehicle not being sent for an inspection does not arise.


For your information, an inspection charge for an initial inspection exercise is RM50. If a vehicle should fail the above exercise, subsequent charges will be RM25.

If you are a registered driving school instructor like myself, who is in possession of a qualified certificate (S.M. 3 or Sijil Mengajar 3) to teach students and you own a vehicle belonging to institutes these days, one of the most problematic headache you will confront is the question of having to send your vehicle for inspection every 6 months to the Puspakom authorities.

Talking about inspections in Selangor alone, I understand that Puspakom has inspection centres at places such as Wangsa Maju, Kampung Jawa and also at Kampung Sungai Manggis, near Banting town.

Most of these inspection centres open as early as 8.00am It is reported to stay open until 6.00 or 7.00 pm in the evening. Some inspection centres are even opened until later in the evening.

Before talking more about inspection procedures a person has to undergo, permit me to inform you of the things a driving instructor or representative has to bring along to the Puspakom inspection centres mentioned earlier above.

Basically, you will have to make sure you bring along the documents mentioned below:-

i) Letter of authorization from the institute or driving school to which you are attached to. Without this letter the Puspakom authorities may likely disallow you to do your inspection.

ii) Bring along also your vehicle registration card. As the above document is normally kept by the institute or driving school, see to it that you get hold of this important document from your office a few days before the inspection exercise takes place.

iii) Lastly, bring along Puspakom’s previous last inspection report VRI.PIN 1/2007 with you too. A failure to bring along the above report might very well disqualify you for an intended scheduled inspection.

Having got all the above documents or letters that are required, what then are the steps or procedures that you have to make to your vehicle?

Some steps you’ll have to take to prepare your vehicle for an inspection exercise:

If you own a rather old vehicle like this instructor does, you are advised to send it for repairs by your personal mechanic. The things you’ll have to inspect are:-
i) ball joints
ii) brake conditions (front and back)
iii) do your alignment exercise
iv) balance your tyres
v) ensure all 4 tyres of your vehicle are in good condition
vi) have your vehicle serviced a few days before the inspection exercise, as the authorities will inspect your vehicle’s casis number and engine number too

Should you own a rather new car for driving instruction purposes, then obviously you’ll not be faced with too many problems at all. Some instructors own cars such as Viva or MyVi models. These people will have lesser headaches to solve, I think.

One last advice which I would like to give to readers, especially fellow instructors sending their vehicles for inspection is to ensure that amongst other things your vehicle has:-

a) A jack and other paraphernalia such as emergency triangles as well.
b) According to an experienced runner who has been in the field of inspecting vehicles for years, a Mr Ah Lai, 58, tyre pressures should ideally be lower, say 23 or 24 psi.

Whatever it is, 4 or 5 things about your vehicle should be in good order and they included your tyres, alignment, your engine and casis number which should easily be ascertained by the Puspakom authorities.

Rest assured your vehicle will then be able to pass the inspection test. Anyway should your vehicle fail to get through the initial test, do not despair. It’s not the end of the world. Come for another subsequent test.

Repair back whatever is wrong with your vehicle and send it in for another inspection. Well, it only costs RM25 anyway!

Assuming that your vehicle gets through its inspection exercise, you’ll then be given Puspakom’s disc for inspection done. This disc will then have to be pasted on to your vehicle’s front windscreen to prove to the authorities that is the police and R.T.D. or J.P.J. people that your vehicle has indeed undergone the required 6 monthly inspection exercise!

With it, no action will therefore be taken against you.

By | 2015-04-12T23:34:09+08:00 April 12th, 2015|Driving Schools|4 Comments

About the Author:

4 Comments

  1. sunda April 21, 2015 at 7:13 pm - Reply

    Hi

    I am interested in learn car driving . I am from India and planing to buy a car .
    I also got license in India . But not used to car .Can you tell me the cost and hours
    So that i will plan accordingly.

    Regards
    Sundar

    • Cikgu Yap April 22, 2015 at 12:31 pm - Reply

      Hi Sundar, thanks for writing in.

      Is your Indian license a car driving license?

      Nonetheless, will be contacting you soon via your email.

  2. Car coating April 27, 2015 at 1:20 pm - Reply

    When I took my driver licence back in early 2000, the cars was really unsafe. I understand that Kancil is cheap but they should consider using a better car especially for someone who never been behind steering wheel before. I still can see driving schools using Kancil today.

    • Cikgu Yap May 4, 2015 at 11:12 am - Reply

      We’re using Perodua Axia now.

Leave A Comment