Public Sector Vehicle Alternate-Day Driving System to Be Lifted on July 1

▲ A sign indicating the vehicle rotation system stands at an outdoor parking lot of the Government Complex Sejong in Sejong City on June 30.

The alternate-day driving system for public sector vehicles and the five-day rotation system for public parking lots will be lifted following a downgrade in the crude oil supply security alert level.

The government decided at a cabinet meeting today (June 30) to lower the crude oil supply security alert from "Alert" to "Caution" and lift the alert for liquefied natural gas (LNG). Consequently, the alternate-day driving system for public vehicles and the five-day rotation system for public parking lots will be terminated effective at midnight on July 1.

Initially, the government planned to relax the public sector alternate-day driving system to a five-day rotation system. However, following instructions from President Lee Jae-myung to lift the measure if there was no significant difference between relaxing and abolishing it, the government decided to scrap it entirely.

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

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

The vehicle rotation system, intended to save energy, is widely considered a failure.

During today's cabinet meeting, Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Moon Shin-hak also stated, "Looking only at the impact on fuel consumption, there would be no major issues even without the five-day rotation system."

Many have pointed out that the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the department in charge, failed to prepare properly, resulting in inconvenience without any real effect.

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

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

This shows that even the government failed to comply with its own alternate-day system.

Criticism arose that the policy only caused inconvenience to employees and led to loopholes, such as spouses swapping cars, particularly at institutions located in areas with poor public transportation.

Regarding the five-day rotation system for public parking lots, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment initially claimed it would cover "30,000 locations, or about 1 million parking spaces." However, 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 system (3,895 locations) was more than double the number of those that did.

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment stated that the alternate-day public vehicle system and the five-day public parking rotation system saved 169,000 barrels of oil per month.

This is equivalent to the amount of fuel that could fill 480,000 passenger cars.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

※