BUKIT MERTAJAM: A group of garbage truck operators under the jurisdiction of the Seberang Prai City Council (MBSP) have objected to the local authority's proposal to raise solid waste charges, arguing that the move will burden their customers.
Kumpulan Kebajikan Pemandu-Pemilik Lori Sampah Seberang Prai head Arif Ibrahim said the two-fold increase in charges would certainly burden their customers and at the same time, affect the services they currently offer.
He said prior to this, customers from Bertam, Kepala Batas, were charged RM180 for each truck loaded with three tonnes of solid waste for disposal in Pulau Burung, Nibong Tebal.
"When MBSP imposes the new rate at RM70 per tonne of solid waste, this means that we are forced to increase our charges to between RM400 and RM450 per customer. Customers will then think that we purposely want to impose high charges when in fact, it is the local authority doing so.
"We have no choice but to also increase charges to cover the rate increase as well as other costs such as the salary of our workers and lorry drivers," he told newsmen during a peaceful demonstration with several garbage truck operators and drivers in front of the MBSP building here today.
The group had initially wanted to gather 50 garbage trucks in front of the MBSP building to make presence felt. However, they were prevented from doing so by the police who said it would constitute non-adherence to the standard operating procedures (SOP) to prevent Covid-19 transmission.
At last count, only 10 garbage trucks joined in the protest.
They had launched their first demonstration yesterday in Juru.
Arif said aside from the increase in solid waste charges, the protest was also held in response to MBSP's proposal to fix global positioning systems (GPS) in their truck, which they claimed were privately-owned.
"What law is the MBSP using to fix the GPS in our privately-owned vehicles?
"We are only collecting garbage from factories and from house-to-house. We do not handle garbage by the public sector (government)," he added, noting that they were disappointed that they were not invited to discuss the matter.
He said although it was just a proposal, they have been advised to prepare themselves in the event they are not allowed to continue with their operations over failure to abide by the ruling.
Meanwhile, Arif also highlighted the poor condition of the Pulau Burung landfill, which he said paled in comparison to those in Kulim, Kedah and Taiping, Perak.
He said the situation at the Pulau Burung landfill was dangerous to their drivers and even MBSP's own employees, claiming that several minor accidents had previously occurred.
The situation, he said, was further compounded by the many occasions that truck tyres became stuck at the landfill.
"Take for example this broken mirror on my truck after a stone entered through the back tyre and hit the mirror. Is MBSP paying for damages when in fact we are paying to enter the landfill? We pay taxes and even the people pay taxes for such services," he noted.
He said, before this, they would only be charged RM20 per day for the use of the landfill, regardless of the number of trips.
Under the new ruling, each entry into the landfill would cost RM10.
