Malaysia Defers Enforcement Of Vehicle Entry Permit During Peak Hour Traffic Until Further Notice

I think I speak for most of us here when I say that we love a quick day trip to Malaysia.

Braving the heinous traffic, what awaits on the other side is extremely cheap buys and the occasional comment of “The traffic is damn slow man.”

Which also brings up a reminder that Malaysia has implemented a Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) for us that would rightly start next month.

However, maybe that day won’t come so soon.

Eh, hold up, good non-VEP-reader! Listen a bit more about what we have to say.

Deference Of VEP Enforcement

This isn’t a free pass for you, just saying.

Today (23 Sept), Malaysia announced that VEP implementation during peak hours would be deferred to a later date.

VEP implementation has been delayed several times because the Malaysian authorities said they needed more time to fine-tune the system.

Some reasons given include the difficulty in obtaining appointments for the radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag installation.

Also, to make sure we’re on the same page on definition of peak hour, these are the numbers provided by the Transport Ministry:

Monday to Thursday: 5am to 11am, 7pm to 10am
Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 4pm to 3am, 1pm to 4pm

The idea of this is to also give foreign vehicle owners enough time to go and register an RFID tag to avoid future travel disruptions.

And in case you’re going to start complaining, just remember that the VEP concept was announced way back in 2017.

So this isn’t new, pal.

The Long Run

If it makes you feel any better, this isn’t ‘special treatment’ for Singaporeans.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke said his ministry was still looking into how it could implement the permit at Malaysia’s borders with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei.

Authorities would first implement the VEP at Malaysia’s border with Singapore before the above.

This would affect all outbound traffic at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar and Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar at Woodlands and Tuas Checkpoints respectively.

Also if you’re from any of the non-Singapore countries mentioned, lucky you because no fixed date has been set for any of them yet.

Once again, that doesn’t mean no exemptions. Malaysia’s Transport Ministry has a plan.

There are three stages to this plan.

It starts with the Causeway and Second Link, followed by the Malaysia-Thai border, and then the border between Malaysia and Brunei. Finally, the Malaysia border with Indonesia.

Don’t take this as an indication to slack on your RFID applications. Go do it before your one-way ticket to cheap stuff is gone.