Authorities in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district have called on the public to stop using tuk-tuks that are not up to technical or safety standards or have illegal modifications to them in order to maintain public order and prevent accidents.
The district authorities reiterated the call after they went out to educate drivers and their passengers and impounded 72 tuk-tuks on November 3. The drivers were also made to sign letters promising to comply with the order before getting their tuk-tuks back.
Daun Penh district’s head of administration Chap Dina told The Post on November 5 that use of tuk-tuks that are not compliant with technical standards was taking place on a daily basis up until this operation, but on November 5 no more tuk-tuks were impounded as a result of the police’s actions two days before.
“People mostly understand the situation. They cooperate with us. We need to take actions like this on a regular basis to maintain public order similar to actions taken for parking enforcement. We do them in a series of stages,” he said.
He advised that the owners of the sub-standard tuk-tuks who are engaged in the transport of goods should switch to using vehicles like trucks or vans.
Additionally, he suggested that those who sell goods from tuk-tuks should go sell them in the suburbs because they will have more customers there and it will be easier to do business and to do so without having a negative impact on public order in the city’s centre.
“There is no penalty yet – we just impound the tuk-tuks and educate their owners. But if the same people make the same mistake in the future, there will be a penalty and the tuk-tuk will be kept at the district impound lot for two weeks, no exceptions. Any tuk-tuks that are not up to technical or safety standards are absolutely not allowed to travel in Daun Penh district,” he said.
Dina said that people should know by now that Daun Penh district is a tourist hot-spot that is important to the capital’s economy. Furthermore, he said they are proud to have received the Rumduol flower three times in the Clean City Competition in consecutive years and Daun Penh district has also been ranked among clean city districts by ASEAN.
He said that district-wide Daun Penh is about 95 per cent clean at the local level and the district administration was still actively working on the task.
