ALOR STAR: HIGHWAY concessionaire PLUS Malaysia Bhd (Plus) has no plans to lay off its staff force of 2,500 despite the ongoing migration to a fully electronic toll collection (ETC) system for its 92 toll plazas nationwide.
It’s chief operating officer Mohammad Fuad Khusairi told The New Straits Times yesterday that the company would retain all of its employees even though it was significantly reducing its dependence on manpower due to the migration to the ETC system. He urged PLUS employees involved in ticketing and toll collection to remain at their current branch offices.
“All the employees at the affected toll plazas will be retained at the same branch offices to focus on back-end processing. Their services are still needed.”
It was reported that Plus planned to migrate from the current manual transaction to the ETC system at all of its 92 toll plazas in the peninsula by next year. The process, which had been implemented in stages since last year, is scheduled to be completed by year end.
Earlier yesterday, Plus managing director Datuk Noorizah Abd Hamid announced that all transactions at nine toll plazas in Kedah and Penang would fully migrate to the ETC system via PLUSMiles cards, Touch ’n Go cards or SmartTAGs, beginning Nov 30.
The toll plazas in Kedah are Hutan Kampung, Alor Star Utara, Alor Star Selatan, Gurun, Pendang, Sungai Petani Utara and Sungai Petani Selatan, while the toll plazas in Penang are Bertam and Sungai Dua.
“We are urging motorists to shift to our PLUSMiles card, which offers rebates during festive seasons and other promotional programmes, so users will enjoy more benefits.
“We will open a dedicated lane on the left side of all nine toll plazas for motorists to reload and buy the electronic card,” she said at a gotong-royong held in conjunction with Plus Community Day at Kampung Tok Pasai in Kuala Kedah here yesterday.
More than 1,000 Plus employees took part in the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme at 16 locations nationwide
Noorizah said Plus had spent RM50 million on CSR programmes since 2005 to help the needy.
“The programme is also aimed at encouraging teamwork and nurturing the spirit of volunteerism among our staff,” she said.
Noorizah added that the company had also spent RM5.4 million since 2014 to sponsor school equipment for 27,000 students nationwide.