MIROS: 70% of p-hailing riders disobey traffic rules, to address issue with providers

Food delivery and express parcel shipping have become an essential service thanks to the Covid-19 lockdown to keep the supply of food going and businesses running while Malaysians work from home. However, p-hailing (food and parcel delivery) riders have become a menace on the road.

The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) revealed in a recent report that 70% of p-hailing riders disobey traffic rules when on their delivery run.

MIROS chairman Datuk Suret Singh told The Sun that stopping in the yellow box accounted for the largest percentage of all violations at 57%. Surprisingly, beating the red lights, something that we often observed, makes up 16% while illegal U-turns account for only 5%.

Other violations include using the phone while riding and riding against traffic making up 15% and 7% respectively.

MIROS believes that immediate interventions are necessary. The institute has already started talks with service providers such as Grab and Foodpanda as the second step.

Earlier this year, MIROS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport (MOT), also launched a road safety campaign for p-hailing riders as the first step of addressing the issue. 

The programme includes educating riders with statistics and facts on road safety as well as defensive riding. However, Suret added that he understands road safety training is only part of the solution.

He believes that riders also require the proper safety attire to not only make them more visible, especially while doing delivery runs at night, but also to help reduce injuries and save lives.

Suret also suggests that service providers can further encourage safer riding behaviour by offering monetary rewards to riders who show a clean record.

Other than that, MIROS is also working with the Kuala Lumpur City Hall and other local authorities to improve rider safety at traffic junctions by utilising the surveillance method.

According to statistics, a total of 6,176 road fatalities were recorded in 2019, out of that number 3,959 (64%) are made up of motorcyclists. In 2020, road fatalities recorded at 4,653 cases with motorcyclists accounting for 3,118 (67%) of the total.

While there is insufficient data to prove that p-hailing drivers make up a huge part of that number last year, but since the Movement Control Order (MCO) confined the majority of Malaysians to their homes, p-hailing drivers make up a large number of road users left on the road.

However, the statistics did record that there were 17 fatalities involving food delivery riders while 10 had sustained serious injuries and 64 suffered from minor injuries in crashes last year.

Data from the Social Security Organisation also showed that there were more than 150 road accidents involving food delivery riders from March to June last year as well.

P-hailing riders and drivers were celebrated as heroes during the MCO as they played a huge role in keeping what little of the economy running. However, many find it hard to properly feel thankful towards riders as they were often caught violating traffic rules and almost causing accidents while on the road.