PUTRAJAYA, Aug 28 (Bernama) -- The Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) is allowing express bus companies to apply for temporary licences to use school or factory buses to overcome the shortage of buses for the coming Merdeka holiday.

CVLB chairman Datuk Markiman Kobiran, in a statement issued here today, said the decision was made in view of some express bus companies being forced to cancel their service during the period due to inavailability of drivers.

" As a temporary measure to address the problem, we are allowing express bus companies to apply for the temporary licence with certain conditions imposed," he added.

The conditions include that the school or factory buses should not be more than 10 years old, have valid road tax and insurance coverage, passed the inspection by Puspakom and the applications are submitted by the express bus companies concerned.

Other conditions are that the tickets are issued by the applying express bus companies with an additional charge of RM3 allowed on the fare and they be held responsible for the service provided by the school or factory buses.

Markiman reminded express bus operators to abide by the conditions of the licence and that they would not be allowed to terminate their service without CVLB's approval even if they refunded customers for the tickets.

" We will monitor the situation to ensure there is adequate express bus service and will also be flexible in allowing express bus companies which apply for the temporary licence to ply other routes," he added.