PETALING JAYA: With the resumption of interstate travel soon, all Mara Liner buses are ready for operations as the company embarks on new innovations such as journey planners and bus-on-demand.

       Mara Liner Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Zachary Ismail Zee Ismail also gave his assurance that all its drivers have been vaccinated.

       “We have new buses too and our fares are the same. All our drivers have been fully vaccinated,” he said during Mara Corporation’s visit to the Star Media Group (SMG) at Menara Star here yesterday.

       The state-owned company also plans to introduce more convenient ways to use Mara Liner’s stage buses, such as a cashless system.

       “We want to raise standards in our own way. Gone are the days of using the regular ticketing system.

       “This will be rolled out and implemented now that we are moving to the next level,” said Zachary Ismail.

       He said other Mara Liner plans are a journey planner and a bus-on-demand service for its stage buses.

       “This will be similar to e-hailing services, which would allow people to book a bus to the nearest bus station.

       “If the driver can see that there is no passenger waiting, they can skip and move on to the next route,” he said.

       Zachary Ismail said as for express bus services, the company wanted to take the lead and set a trend similar to standards in the airline industry, such as code sharing among different express bus operators.

       “Current express bus services are boring and traditional, so we want to take the lead and collaborate with other operators,” he said.

       He said that it was important to collaborate, adding that if express bus operators continued to compete among themselves in a small market, there would eventually be losers.

       Also present during the visit were Mara Corporation group corporate communications senior vice-president Datin Nirvana Jalil Ghani, the chief executive officers and representatives of its various subsidiaries, as well as SMG managing editor Brian Martin and SMG chief revenue officer Lydia Wang.

       “We are now undergoing an exciting transformation plan,” said Nirvana, adding that they were honoured to be part of the visit to SMG.

       Nirvana said with their 8,000 staff in various sectors, including aviation, education, hospitality and transport, collaboration with SMG was the way forward.

       “It is an interesting time we are in because we have so many different industries.

       “The idea for today’s visit is for my team to get to know SMG, being that The Star is the number one English newspaper in Malaysia,” she said.