Professional drivers oppose heavier fines for traffic offenses

A group of professional drivers on Friday delivered a letter to the government headquarters expressing their opposition to the latest proposal of the amendment of the city’s Road Traffic Law.

The group, comprising around 50 local drivers, together with lawmaker Lei Cheng I, wants the government to retain existing fines for transit infractions, such as illegal parking.

“It is unfair to us, professional drivers,” declared the president of Macau Federation of Transportation, Tong Chak Sam.

Besides having reported their unhappiness towards the proposal for heavier fines, the drivers also called on the government to improve the city’s ancillary transport facilities, as well as to increase the number of parking places in Macau.

In turn, in addition to heavier fines proposed for illegal parking, the government also proposed to increase fines for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, for speeding, and for driving while using mobile phones.

According to Tong, professional drivers are unhappy at the prospect of heavier fines for driving while using mobile phones.

“We are expressing our anger. Our operations rely on phones, through which we receive work requests,” said Tong, further asking: “If the government does not even allow us to use phones on speaker, how can we get work?”

Moreover, Tong pointed out that there is a severe lack of legal parking areas for commodity delivery vehicles.

“Often, when we make a delivery, we cannot park over the solid yellow lines, therefore we have to park illegally. The fine is MOP900. Isn’t this indeed unfair to professional drivers?” Tong questioned, hoping that the Secretary for Transport and Public Works and the Chief Executive would hear their plea.

“The key is to first increase the number of facilities,” said Tong.

Lei Cheng I, adding on to Tong’s words, commented that “[the government] want[s] [professional drivers] to obey the law, but how can we obey when there are solid yellow lines across most of Macau?”

According to the lawmaker, the industry already held a discussion with the city’s transport authority in order to offer their suggestions.

“[The industry] has suggested [that] the government, for instance […] give professional drivers a limited time to park [at certain places], or to establish additional legal parking spots so that the industry can obey the law. However, since this problem has never been solved, the industry can’t avoid illegal parking,” said Lei.

Later, Tong’s association will be collecting signatures from the city’s professional drivers to call for the government’s attention to their demands.