120 VEP tags collected, installed at Woodlands since Sept 12

A total of 119 Malaysia Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) tags have been collected and installed in vehicles at the Woodlands VEP information counter since the option to pick up the tags from the Singapore office began on Sept 12.

Mr Ng Poh Heng, manager of the information centre on the third floor of 186 Woodlands Industrial Park E5, said on Sept 18 that the team has been, and will be, installing 30 VEPs in vehicles every day until Sept 30.

It will increase the number of installations to 50 VEPs each day from Oct 1 to Oct 4.

He plans to hire one more person to meet his target of installing 100 to 150 VEPs per day by mid-October.

This comes after news of the opening of the collection point in Singapore surfaced on Sept 3, when the VEP portal allowed motorists, for a $39 fee, to opt to get their tags at the Woodlands counter – instead of from Danga Bay in Johor or by post.

From Oct 1, foreign-registered vehicles entering Malaysia from Singapore by land must have a valid VEP, which acts like an “identity card” for these vehicles in Malaysia.

This is because each permit has a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that allows the Malaysian authorities to identify a foreign-registered vehicle.

A VEP can be used to pay toll fees on Malaysian highways, as well as the RM20 (S$6) road charge levied on foreign vehicles when they enter Malaysia.

Owners of non-Malaysia-registered vehicles can be denied entry into Johor or fined up to RM2,000 if found without a valid VEP.

The Woodlands counter was set up on Aug 19 initially to answer motorists’ queries, including those with pre-existing applications and those who want to learn more about the requirements for a successful application. Motorists were not allowed to install or collect their VEPs at the counter then.

Since Aug 30, visits to the information counter are strictly by appointment only and walk-ins are not allowed.

When The Straits Times visited the Woodlands VEP information counter at around 2pm on Sept 18, most people who showed up had appointments, although there were a handful of walk-in visitors lingering outside.

Some visitors did not know that walk-ins were no longer accepted at the counter.

Staff outside the centre directed them to make their appointments online, and tried to briefly address some of their queries.

The staff also suggested that motorists with “very urgent queries” try going to the counter in Danga Bay in Johor Bahru, but warned them about the long queues there.

Since August, walk-in visitors can submit queries by writing them down in notebooks placed outside the Woodlands office.

The queries are categorised by common problems faced in VEP applications: e-wallet issues, tags that are not activated, VEP portal log-in problems, de-registration and verification issues.

Mr Ng said the team will look at these queries on weekends – when the information centre is closed – and send e-mail responses with suggested solutions, similar to answers for frequently asked questions.

He added that this will be useful for applicants who have an idea of how the portal works, and will help those who “take the effort to come down” to the counter without making prior appointments.

Each day, the counter serves 100 motorists who have booked online appointments for queries. The team has had to turn away about 30 to 40 visitors who do not have prior appointments daily, said Mr Ng.

The installation process for each VEP takes about three minutes.

While the current staff strength of 13 people is sufficient to install around 100 tags per day, Mr Ng said that the team is currently taking things slow to familiarise themselves with the procedure as it would be very inconvenient – for both the motorist and the team – to stick the wrong tag to a vehicle as it would have to be destroyed and a new tag would have to be encoded.

He noted some teething issues with the back-end system, which allows people to arrange to collect their VEPs even when their applications are not properly completed or paid for. As such, staff have to re-schedule installation appointments for these motorists.

Retired armed forces officer K. Arumugam, 66, visited the Woodlands counter without a prior appointment.

He said he had tried to make an appointment online on Sept 15 the moment slots opened at 11.59pm, but said it was “ridiculous” that time slots across two weeks were fully booked almost instantly.

Mr Arumugam was hoping to schedule an appointment for another day at the counter to resolve a technical issue that did not allow him to upload documents to the portal to support his application.

However, things were different for others like Mr Vincent Liew, 48, who successfully applied for appointments for inquiries and VEP collection.

The company director said he had to wait a month before his appointment date came around, and described the application process as “very complicated”.

He added that it took him three hours to finish uploading all the documents in the approved formats, even though staff at the information counter helped him.

But Mr Liew said that being guided through all the steps of the application was useful as he was able to make an appointment to collect his VEP in person, having faced some technical difficulties at that stage.