Public Sector Vehicle Alternate-Day Driving Policy Relaxed to Five-Day Rotation After Government Fails to Comply

▲ Public Institution Vehicle Alternate-Day Driving Policy

Following the downgrade of the crude oil resource security crisis alert, the alternate-day driving policy for public sector vehicles will be relaxed to a five-day rotation, and the five-day rotation policy for public parking lots will be lifted.

During a cabinet meeting held today (June 30), the government decided to lower the crude oil resource security crisis alert from "Alert" to "Caution" and lift the alert for liquefied natural gas (LNG). Consequently, the alternate-day driving policy for the public sector will be shifted to a five-day rotation, and the five-day rotation for public parking lots will be abolished.

Due to the energy crisis stemming from the war in the Middle East, a five-day rotation policy for public sector vehicles was made mandatory on March 25, and it was strengthened to an alternate-day policy on April 8.

The five-day rotation for public parking lots was implemented on April 8, the same day the public sector vehicle restrictions were tightened.

The vehicle rotation policy intended for energy conservation is widely considered a failure.

Critics point out that the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the responsible ministry, failed to prepare adequately, resulting in inconvenience without any tangible effect.

According to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, a total of 899 violations of the alternate-day policy were recorded by the ministry and its affiliated organizations as of June 22.

Across 25 government ministries and all public institutions, the total number of violations reached approximately 27,000, including 230 cases within the ministries themselves.

This indicates that even the government failed to adhere to its own alternate-day policy.

Criticism has been raised that the policy only caused inconvenience to employees and led to loopholes, such as spouses swapping vehicles, particularly among institutions located in areas with poor public transportation access.

Regarding the five-day rotation for public parking lots, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment initially stated that the policy would cover 30,000 locations, or approximately 1 million parking spaces. However, as of 10 days after implementation, it was applied to only 1,694 locations across 128 local governments.

In particular, the number of parking lots where local governments did not apply the five-day rotation (3,895 locations) was more than double the number of those where it was applied.

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