Authorities in Johor have impounded a Singapore-registered Toyota Alphard driven by a Malaysian man, suspected of operating an unlicensed cross-border transport service near the Malaysian checkpoint at the Causeway.
The vehicle was seized on 16 October at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex, according to a Facebook post by the Johor Road Transport Department (JPJ).
JPJ officers discovered that the driver lacked the necessary operator’s permit, had not registered the vehicle for public transport use, and had failed to pay the required Malaysian road tax for commercial operations.
At the time of the stop, the Alphard was ferrying two foreign passengers, one Indian and one Filipino.
The driver was issued a notice of violation, and the vehicle was confiscated pending further investigation.
A recurring issue
This doesn’t seem to be an isolated case. Earlier in the year, four Singapore-registered vehicles including three Toyotas (an Alphard, a Vellfire, and a Hiace) and a Honda Spada, were seized in Johor Bahru after their Singaporean drivers were found to be illegally ferrying tourists into Malaysia.
Those drivers, aged in their 30s and 40s, had been advertising their services on social media and messaging apps, charging up to SGD180 (~RM587) per person for trips to Johor Bahru, SGD200 (~RM652) to Legoland Malaysia, and as much as SGD1,200 (~RM3,915) for longer journeys to Ipoh.
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