LTA Will Give You $100 If You Dispose Of Non-UL2272 E-Scooter From 23 Sept – 30 Nov 2019

If you don’t understand the headline, you’ve probably been living under a rock.

Here’s one scenario that might happen tomorrow, or a few days later:

BuffLord95 is lying on his bed, watching some new Japanese movie he’s downloaded online. The plot is almost non-existent, the action scenes are slow-paced and the dialogue is rubbish. But BuffLord95 is enjoying it so much, he’s fast-forwarding the scenes often.

All of a sudden, smoke appeared in his room. He ran out of his room and saw that black smoke had almost clouded his entire living room. WTF, the haze’s so serious now?

He ran out of the house and realised that his neighbour’s flat is burning. Shocked, he decided to do the next best thing: ran down and screamed for help, forgetting that he’s undressed.

The neighbour’s PMD has just caused a fire, and BuffLord95 is scarred for life for running at his HDB estate naked.

The worst part of this story? It might be fictional but it’s common.

In 2017, there were 49 PMD-related fires, and in 2018, there were 74.

In recent months, there were so many that the ban to use non-UL2272 certified PMDs, originally scheduled for the end of 2020, was brought forward six months.

But before anything: what is UL2272, and does that help to prevent fire?

UL2272, a 4D Number That Everyone’s Going to Remember Soon

A UL2272-certified PMD is one that has a first safety certification. In order for a PMD to be certified, it has to go through various tests. The most important ones are the electrical tests: it ensures that it won’t overcharge and burn BuffLord95’s neighbour’s house.

PMD retailers aren’t supposed to sell non-UL2272 certified PMDs since 1 July this year.

However, of all the e-scooters that were registered so far, only 10% are UL2272-certified, which means there are well over 81,000 non-UL2272 certified PMDs on our streets now.

Suffice to say, if you own one, you’ll not be happy that you’ve to give up your precious and expensive e-scooter due to a new law.

So the authorities is dangling a carrot now.

LTA Giving $100 If You Dispose Your Non-UL2272 Certified PMD

In order to encourage more people to dispose of their non-UL2272 certified PMDs, the LTA has provided 181 locations for them to dispose of them…for free.

Lest you’re not aware, you cannot anyhowly dispose of anything bulky at your, say, lift lobby. If you want to throw away a bed, you’ll have to find a company to dispose of properly.

It’s actually an offence to just put your bed beside a regular bin.

Bet you didn’t know that.

So, other than providing the 181 locations to dispose of the PMDs for free, the LTA is even dangling a carrot: you’ll also get $100.

The LTA said, “To incentivise early disposal, registered e-scooter owners who step forward with their non-UL2272 e-scooters for disposal at the designated disposal points from Sep 23 to Nov 30, 2019, will qualify for an early disposal incentive of S$100 per registered e-scooter.”

However, don’t just gong gong throw your PMD into one of the locations and expect $100 to appear in your bank account.

You need to apply for your incentive online at www.onemotoring.com.sg , and more details will then be provided to you via SMS.

Just so you know, your e-scooter must have been registered for this incentive. If not…well, you shouldn’t even be riding it in the first place.

What Happens After 30 November 2019?

If you only dispose of your non-UL2272 certified PMD after 30 November 2019, you can still dispose of them for free in the 181 locations before 31 March 2020, but you won’t be getting the $100 incentive.

How about after 31 March 2020, since the total ban only comes in July 2020?

Well, look at my face here.

Do I look like LTA to you?

(i.e. no details yet lah)