JOHOR BAHRU: Malaysia will open two new locations in Johor for Singapore vehicle owners to install their Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) tags, a move that will boost its capacity to do so by five times.
The two new centres will open on Sunday (Sep 22), the Road Transport Department (JPJ) announced in a statement on Thursday evening.
“Effort to improve the VEP RFID (radio frequency identification) tag registration process will be implemented by creating two additional facility locations to facilitate Singapore vehicle owners to install the VEP RFID tag,” said the statement.
“This effort is to facilitate the installation of VEP RFID tags on Singaporean vehicle owners who have registered for VEP online and assisted by JPJ officers at those locations.”
It added that the new centres will increase the number of tag installations to 1,500 a day.
The statement did not mention whether vehicle owners could collect their VEPs at the new centres.
According to the JPJ statement, the two new locations will be at the Road Transport Academy (Southern Region) Jalan Kebun Teh Lama, Larkin 80250, and at the Johor State Road Transport Department JPJ Complex, Taman Daya 80990.
They can serve up to 400 and 800 vehicles respectively per day.
JPJ also called on all owners of foreign vehicles to immediately register, install and activate their RFID VEP tags to avoid any difficulties when entering and exiting Malaysia in the future.
The statement directed readers to the JPJ website for registration and further information.
The planned new locations are part of a move to streamline the VEP application process as the Oct 1 deadline approaches.
Currently, the TCSens office in Danga Bay, which can serve up to 300 vehicles a day, is the only collection centre in Johor.
Singapore has one centre, located in Woodlands, which can handle around 100 enquiries per day.
Drivers can also receive the tags by post but many prefer to have them installed at the authorised centres, resulting in overwhelming demand and long queues.
Shortly after it opened on Aug 19, the Woodlands centre had to resort to serving only those with prior appointments, with the daily 100 enquiry slots taken up at least a week in advance.
It started tag installation on Sep 12, doing so for 20 vehicles that day. It is now reportedly installing 30 VEP tags daily and aims to scale this up to between 100 and 150 by mid-October.
Following the news that Malaysia would be implementing the VEP, numerous vehicle owners in Singapore have reported struggling with uncertainty and challenges.
Some were unable to complete online payment while others who drive second-hand vehicles had trouble deregistering the VEP applications of previous owners.
In May, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that all foreign-registered vehicles entering the country by land from Singapore would be required to use VEPs from Oct 1.
Motorists who fail to do so may be fined up to RM2,000 (US$475) or jailed for up to six months.
The Johor – Singapore Causeway is one of the busiest border crossings in the world, with an estimated 300,000 people crossing between Malaysia and Singapore via the Causeway every day.