Describing how he feels about his career, SarjanMejar Hanif, aged 49, who has been in the police force for more than 20 years, emphasizes that he is really proud to be part of the police force, as he was given the mandate to protect the nation by carrying out his duties.

“In the beginning, I was also an ordinary police officer when I first joined PDRM. In the year 1996, I applied to transfer to the transportation department to be a driver that helps to carry out the internal duties of the team. Initially, for the first few years of my service here, I was driving normal passenger cars. Since the year 2004, I was given assignments that require driving heavy vehicles, like trucks and buses.”

“How I feel about my career? I do feel proud to be a driver at PDRM. This is because for each and every duty I was assigned to carry out, it is a form of given mandate from the country. Besides, I learned and mastered how to drive all types of vehicles, from the light commercial vehicles to the heavy ones, unlike those tasks that anyone can perform. These experiences make me feel excited and satisfied, which I would perceive as a form of accomplishment in my career.”

Articulating about his daily tasks, Mr Hanif explains, his tasks are mostly to help to carry out internal duties of the police force. These vary from carrying goods and items across branches and departments, road safety and traffic monitoring operation and so on. Such duties would be assigned on rotation basis.

“Unlike the commercial or private sector, the goods and items I have to deliver are normally for the internal consumption within PDRM. Other than delivering goods, I would be given other assignments like to transfer prisoners or persons accused of committing crimes from jail to court for a hearing, to help conducting road safety and traffic monitoring operations, to carry out rescue tasks at areas hit by floods, landslides or other natural disasters.”

“When we are on duty, we do have specific concerns for the routes we use. However, this depends on the tasks we are assigned to and the time we need to deliver our duty. For instance, if we are to send someone who is being accused or a prisoner from the court to Sungai Buloh jail after their hearing, we will use the truck that is equipped with grille. We also need to consider if it is a highprofile case, or it’s a criminal case with the jail term more than seven years if the accused is convicted. If it is, we will need to increase the number of manpower and vehicles in the escorting team to address safety concerns.”

He describes how to check and ensure his vehicle is safe to be used on the road is also part of his daily routine at work.

“Besides, there are three three steps that we need to remember: that is to examine and ensure the safety of the vehicle we are going to use before departure, check it again during the journey, and lastly to clean and carry out a final check of the vehicle after use. Once we find something wrong with the vehicle, we must make a report immediately to our mechanics.”

“Most of the time, for a long distance delivery task, for example from Kuala Lumpur to Perlis state, we will have a codriver along, who is also a mechanic from the department. We are obliged to take a break during any long distance drive, and we will check our truck again before we continue the journey. If the truck breaks down during the journey, we have to fix it ourselves, unless it is a serious break down, for example if the vehicle could not start at all. In such case, we might call for help from our supporting team. Thus, to be drivers of the PDRM, we are all equipped with basic mechanical knowledge about vehicles.”

Asked about the typical challenges he faces at work, Hanif says, to deal with the problems of traffic congestion and learn to be patient when driving a truck are two of the most major challenges to him.

“Living and working in the city, the problems about flow of traffic is really something that we might not be able to predict all the time. Thus, we must plan our schedule ahead in order to avoid any unwanted delay which might result in us arriving late at the destination. As for my case, I usually will depart earlier for the assignments, so it is rare for me to be late at the destination.”

Hanif elaborates, to drive a truck or heavy vehicle is very different from driving a normal car, as for the former, one might need four to five times more patience than the latter when driving on the road. He then explains that this is due to the fact that the centre mass of the truck is much higher than for a car, making it harder for a vehicle to accelerate quickly.

“For example, when I want to overtake a motorbike, I need to accelerate, but the speed for my truck to pick up is so slow that it might take a few minutes. Even if I manage to overtake another vehicle, the driver behind my truck might not like

it that way and they might shift to other lanes. Due to problems of blind spots at a close distance between my truck and the smaller vehicle, an accident can happen easily in such conditions.”

“Hence, it’s crucial for a heavy vehicle driver, like us, to be patient and keeping calm when driving.”

Being the trainer for junior truck drivers at PDRM for more than 13 years, Hanif also shares his experience and insight about coaching new drivers.

“I think the hardest part for these new truck drivers to adopt is that, they need to change the ways they are used to drive, from driving a car to now driving a truck. It is really different and therefore they must learn to be very patient.”

Asked about the advice for the younger generation who would like to be part of the police force as a driver, he says that enthusiasm and passion are some of the most important criteria.

“If we claim a person is successful at his career, it is not the one that gets his job done excellently, but the one that get his job done excellently and loves his job.”