Thesun 2008-11-19 Page01 Toll Discounts

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No. 4642 PP 2644/12/2008 (020369)

Wednesday November 19, 2008

TELLING IT AS IT IS

» Fuel cheaper, but bus fares to go up pg6 10% off for travel from midnight-7am on PLUS and Elite highways

Toll discounts by Karen Arukesamy [email protected]

KUALA LUMPUR: Toll discount of 10% will be given to owners of private cars and light vehicles who use the North-South Expressway and North-South Expressway Central Link (Elite) Highway during low-traffic hours from Jan 1 to end 2010, with additional discounts during festive seasons. More incentives are expected from other highway concessionaires soon. Yesterday, the country’s biggest highway concessionaire, Plus Expressway Bhd, announced incentives for travel on the two highways, the result of negotiations in recent months with the government which had been pushing for toll reductions. “Plus’s initiative is in line with the government’s call to give added value to highway users, especially during the current economic situation,” said Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed (pic) at the launch of the Plus Travel Incentive

Programme yesterday. The icing on the incentive cake is that all Class I (private cars and light vehicles) highway users travelling on both highways between midnight and 7am will get a 10% toll discount. This could mean a saving of about RM4 for the journey from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. Together with the other incentives (see table), the savings would amount to more than 20%. Mohd Zin said the incentives went through an indepth study and evaluation by a Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) committee from May. “This initiative is part of Plus’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) and does not require the government paying compensation,” he said, adding that previously the government paid huge compensation to the concessionaires to maintain or reduce toll rates. He said although the companies made good profit, the terms of the concession agreement called for compensation to reduce toll rates or to maintain them although they were to be increased. On the other 20 highways, Mohd Zin said eight of them could not reduce their toll rates for various reasons: going through financial problems, debt

restructuring, newly operating, concession period ending next year and some were under receiver and manager. He did not name the eight. Mohd Zin hoped the rest will come up with toll reductions soon. He also announced in a statement that all toll highway operators, except one, had agreed to make public their concession agreements, confirming a report in theSun on Monday that the government had declassified the agreements (see page 2). LLM director-general Datuk Mohamad Razali Othman urged other concessionaires to make toll reduction their CSR initiative. He also said that since 1988 compensation paid to highway operators was about RM2 billion.

HIGHWAY TOLL REBATES FROM JANUARY 2009 S and Elite INCENTIVES for PLU Highway users Class 10% toll discount for ht-7am nig mid m fro s icle 1 veh to Dec 31, (effective Jan 1, 2009 2010) discount Additional 10% toll nightmid m fro s icle veh 1 ss for Cla ilfitri, Aid a Ray ri Ha 7am during epavali and Chinese New Year, De sons (Jan 1, Christmas festive sea 0) 201 31, c De – 2009 ate for Additional 5% reb users who electronic toll payment a month spend at least RM200 S Loyalty PLU of ers mb me and are 1, 2009). Jan ive ect (eff e Programm gramme Registration for the pro starts next month.

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» Cast under dark cloud pg18

Entertainment

2.9

readers per copy

by Angela Sargunan [email protected]

KUALA LUMPUR: theSun has achieved a pass-on readership rate of 2.9 readers per copy (RPC), The Nielsen Company’s Malaysia Prime 2008 study disclosed yesterday. The survey commissioned by theSun, revealed that the free paper has been enjoying a pass-on readership rate of 2.9 RPC – just slightly below rival English dailies New Straits Times (3.0 RPC) and The Star (3.1 RPC). The study was conducted to obtain readers’ perspective and media consumption habits of higher income, affluent individuals (personal income of over RM2,500) in the Klang Valley. The study also indicated quantitative justification of theSun’s editorial strength and columnist-pull with a very strong image among its mostly affluent readers, of whom 81% spend up to 30 minutes a day with the paper on weekdays. More than 70% of respondents strongly agreed that they read theSun because it is credible, provides thought provoking, in-depth analysis of news and issues which reflect the concerns of discerning Malaysians. Socio demographic indicators show that theSun readers have strong purchasing power: over 90% own at least one credit card; 80% have a monthly household incomes exceeding RM5,000; over half invest in unit trusts and mutual funds; 45% own private residential property; 21% own other property; 12% have offshore investments; and over half are involved in making business purchase decisions of between RM100,000 and RM1mil. The study, revealed to 350 selected guests from media agencies during a presentation at Sime

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Darby Convention Centre, showed that theSun’s urban readers are tech-savvy and well-connected with 90% being frequent internet users while 55% shop online. theSun, an award-winning publication targeted at a niche market and catering to the affluent readers specifically in the Klang Valley and major cities in the peninsula, is the first read of the day. Nielsen Media Research executive director Andrea Douglas said theSun is significantly the largest circulated weekday English newspaper in the Klang Valley. The study had a sample size of 888 respondents from top to middle level managers in business, government and education as well as professionals living in the KL/PJ areas, who answered a 30-minute online questionnaire, carried out from February. Douglas said the methodology and sampling frame involved the KL/PJ areas where over 80% of theSun was distributed and where online penetration is high. “While the Nielsen Media Index is the readership currency for Malaysia, the coverage does not reach a sufficiently large enough sample of affluent Malaysians to obtain an in-depth analysis into their newspaper reading behaviour,” she said, thus requiring an additional survey. “The Media Index also does not measure readers’ perception of the newspaper,” she said. “The 2007 Media Index indicated 97% of Malaysians with incomes over RM3,000 per month living in the KL/PJ areas have access to the internet, so an online sample is highly representative of the target audience,” she explained. theSun distribution channel manager Joehari Abdul Jabbar said the paper planned to increase its print run to 300,000 copies a day, an additional 25,000 copies, in the near future.

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