Star
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Runners are overcharging to reserve vehicle plates
PUTRAJAYA: It is simple to book a vehicle registration number. Just write to the Road Transport Department (JPJ) and ask for it.
However, a certain “Tan Sri” chose to get someone else to do the job for him and paid a hefty RM81,000 for his number.
The “runner” booked the number for only RM41,000.
“This means the middleman made RM40,000 on just one number,” said JPJ director-general Datuk Emran Kadir.
He added that while it was not wrong to use middlemen, it would be more prudent for owners to apply directly to JPJ for the number of their choice.
Citing other examples, Emran said one buyer paid RM17,000 for a two-digit number that was tendered out for just RM11,000, while another paid RM12,000 for a three-digit number that he could have got for RM7,700.
The activity has lately taken on a new dimension with several people placing advertisements in popular newspapers offering to sell sought-after numbers.
Basically, they are taking advantage of JPJ’s “interchange system” that allows owners of two or more vehicles to swap numbers between the vehicles.
“What the middleman does is this – once he succeeds in bidding for a number, he registers it to a vehicle, which is usually a motorcycle,” said Emran.
When a prospective buyer responds to an advertisement, the middleman will take care of the paperwork, which essentially entails the transfer of the motorcycle’s registration number to the buyer’s vehicle.
This activity is rampant in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, prompting Emran to direct JPJ offices in the Klang Valley last week to limit bidders to only one registration number for each series.
This will be extended later to other JPJ offices nationwide, said Emran.
Even then, he conceded, it will be hard to monitor the middlemen's activities.
“They may, for instance, use the names of relatives and business partners to beat the system,” he said.