The actions of the two personal mobility device (PMD) sharing start-ups, which illegally made their devices available for hire in public places, show a complete disregard for the law (Two start-ups in trouble for illegally offering shared PMDs, Feb 22).

Given these firms' conduct while awaiting approval for a licence, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) should delay consideration of their applications until they have clearly demonstrated to LTA and the public that they can and will comply with all the licensing conditions.

LTA may wish to keep in mind that once the licences are granted, monitoring of violations and enforcement will become more tedious as more PMDs are deployed.

Will these firms keep strictly to the number of PMDs they are licensed to operate?

Will they promptly remove indiscriminately parked or abandoned PMDs?

And will they promptly investigate accidents caused by their users?

Given their violation of LTA regulations even before their licences were approved, these are legitimate questions that these two firms should address in their applications to LTA.

Andrew Seow Chwee Guan