Water taxi safety level for night operation at Terengganu

Abstract

Passenger ships became well-known or gone into service since the end of the Second World War, 1945. In Malaysia, water transportation is very important and been used as main transportation long time ago. Today, this transportation still remains in some of the countries in Malaysia such as Johar, Kedah, Melaka, Pulau Pinang, Sarawak and Terengganu. The examples of water transport that still been used are passenger boat or water taxi (bot penambang), high speed craft and cruise ship. Although the shipping industry growing faster, the safety of the ships has always been a priority as it involving human life. The advancement in the technology must be constant with the safety to ensure this industry is reliable and instead of comfortable the tourists also will have confidence in term of safety. The objectives of this study been are to assess the safety level of water taxi services in Terengganu river and the involvement of responsible parties to ensure the safety of the passengers and tourists that use the service. In fact,this study provides primary assessment on the safety quality of water taxi services to the tourists. The study also helps the involved parties the guidelines to improve the level of safety of water taxi services in Terengganu. The data collections consist of primary and secondary data. Primary data are collected for the first time and it is original to be in which those data are not collected by anyone else before. Interviews been made with the authority and crews to get the full picture on the operation of the water taxi in Terengganu. 50 questionnaires were distributed to get response from the passengers as users of the water taxi. Secondary data collections are those which have already been collected by someone else and have already been analyzed by several statistical methods. Secondary data collected from journal, web and newspaper. The information and data are collected and analyzed using easy methodology by timetable, percentage, descriptive analysis and chart built by Microsoft Office. The main problem faced by the author to make the study is the problem occurred when the researcher trying to get approval from the water taxi owners to have an interview. For a conclusion, all water taxi owners follow the rules and regulation. The safety equipment been provided enough and always determine in a good condition. The level of crews' services is fair. In overall the level of safety aspects of water taxi services if fairly satisfactory. Passengers' attitudes also become one of the issues. The inspection from the authority still can be improved from time to time. Further studies are suggested to cover safety physical water taxi only or do the study in other regions or only specialize in crews' issue.