The Transport Ministry recently revealed that it will be reviewing possible regulations for ride-sharing services like Uber and GrabCar, in an effort to legalise these services. However, the move has come under fire from various taxi associations, according to a report by The Sun.
The Malaysian Taxi, Limousine and Car Rental Operators and Drivers Association (Petekma) said that the Ministry’s decision is unwise because ride-sharing service operators will still fail to adhere to regulations put in place by the government.
Petekma’s president Mohd Shahrir Abdul Aziz said, “it is very unlikely for Uber and GrabCar drivers to follow regulations like obtaining a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence, having their cars regularly inspected by Puspakom or to obtain insurance coverage to protect their passengers.
“Furthermore, the persistence of legalising both Uber and GrabCar will just worsen existing tension between taxi drivers and Uber or GrabCar, especially now when the income of most taxi drivers is already badly affected by the ride-sharing services,” he added.
The association might submit a memorandum to the government, urging it to reconsider the Transport Ministry’s move. However, Mohd Shahrir stated that it will not stage a protest or rally. “In the memo, we will highlight to the ministry that there is no such need for another transport provider in the industry because the current supply of 37,000 taxis in Klang Valley is sufficient to meet demand,” he said.
Malaysian Taxi Drivers’ Transformation Association (PERS1M) deputy president Kamarudin Mohd Hussain shared his thoughts, “instead of trying to legalise something that is already illegal, the government should try to come out with a holistic and comprehensive solution to solve some of the woes and problems faced by the taxi drivers like the high taxi vehicle rental per month charged on taxi drivers.”
Other taxi associations that had a thing to say about the Ministry’s move include the Peninsular Bumiputra Taxi Operators Association (Perbumi). Its president branded the ministry’s suggestion as unreasonable, irrational and unacceptable.
He said, “instead of accepting or legalising something that is not well received by most countries, the government should have a discussion with all the relevant industry associations and affected parties to garner their feedback before coming out with any announcement.”
Meanwhile, Klang Valley Taxi Drivers Action Committee president Zailani Isa Usuluddin criticised deputy transport minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi for doing something beyond his ministry’s scope of influence. He stressed that legalising Uber and GrabCar is similar to insulting the laws especially when it is against the law for any individual to utilise private vehicle for commercial purposes.
“The announcement of legalising Uber and GrabCar should not have come from Aziz as any issues pertaining to land public transport should be done by Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) or the minister responsible for it and in this case, it should be Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri,” Zailani said.
What are your thoughts on the legalisation of the ride-sharing services in Malaysia? Are you supportive of the Transport Ministry’s decision, or do the taxi associations’ make a strong case? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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Taxi companies and its no-standard drivers can go and die for all I care.
Whatever the rakyat wants, the rakyat gets should be standard policy.
Parasites. Lazy-as
> Taxi
> Safe
Can only choose one.
hahahah i love the i love najib banner!!! win for the year
why can’t SPAD legalise uber, grabcar and abolish taxi rental for taxi drivers? win-win situation…people happy!!
Crony no win mah… how?
Cronies getting free money all these years would die if that happens, where can?!
Protest all the way you want. We won’t ride your cab. I don’t lose or regret anything.
Tudia…..”i love najib”, “pm harapan kami” pun dah keluar, engkau orang mintak dia ambik sebahagian 2.6 bintang bagi sedekah kah ape?
technically , this is called ‘ass kissing!’
I think taxi drivers should improve themselves rather than demonstrating. I constantly take taxis to and from airports etc and whilst 50% of them behave and drive professionally, another 50% either drive recklessly, not putting meters on, talked very rude and misbehaving etc. Compare to Taiwan, Japan and other few countries that I took cabs, it would be a logical choice to take a non taxi service like uber. To all taxi drivers, not meant to insult but please improve your behaviour and ethics. Its for your own good.
Seriously, how many taxi associations that we have?
SPAD to be blamed for poor taxi services, if the enforcement is strong, I’m sure the taxi driver will improve their behavior and services if they want their license. Please take actions on all the complains received, impose heavy fine on the taxi driver.
If the services provided are good, why would the consumers opt for Uber instead? It is time for the the drivers to reflect on the services rendered to the consumers. It’s all about customer experience.
37,000 taxies or 100,000 taxies it will not be sufficient to meet the demand. because there is no demand for operators who do not use meter, refuse to pick up customer to places they deem not profitable, using jammed and longer routes on purpose, old unsafe vehicle, dirty and smelly cabs (and sometimes drivers), no way of tracking, no details, no way of giving feedback to the performance of the driver to improve, +50% surcharge after midnight, unsafe overall ride experience.
the only thing i feel bad for are those who are actually following the rules. the rest memang cialat. those who follow the rules should just port on over to uber or something.
just last week I saw a cab driver asking for rm70 for a half hour ride. claiming that the route is jam (which is not) and it was raining. since when does rain affect fare? in times like this I can’t help but to turn to uber/grab car.
As a rakyat, i oni want uber n grabcar. I alredy put my memo. Please abolish taxi in malaysia n its mutiple parties, thank u
I travel all Asia, Europe and US. Let’s begin with Asia. The best will be Japan, Korea (they will take you despite not being able to communicate. They have numbers for you to call to help translate with the driver) and Taiwan. The frequencies of taxis are awesome. Hardly need to wait. Come next is HK and Spore. Both are good, mostly large Toyotas and will take you to your destination. In HK, if may be difficult to get taxis during peak hours. They may not cross the harbour so that’s a little inconvenient but they cannot refuse a passenger baring the above. If they try to haggle, just ask the driver to go to the police station and they will change their mind and will send you to your destination. Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila have one of the most notorious traffic jams. The good thing is they still take you to your destination and goes on meters! Sometimes they ask you to ‘top-up’ which in most cases I felt was fair because of the traffic jam. They may ask that you add between 50% to 100% of the meter depending on the traffic. Taxi conditions in these 3 cities are almost like KL taxis. Small, old and dirty. Bangkok uses Altis which are quite good. Manila uses Vios and small cars that are mostly dirty like our Saga/Persona taxis. In my humble opinion, KL taxis are actually one of the worst in the region. It’s probably the worst after India. The Protons (except the blue Innovas and Exora) are horrible at best. Old, dirty and smelly. Drivers are either very old (pity the old drivers) or look like tugs!. I once tried to get a taxi from the Curve to PJ section 20 at about 9.30am. It was a pleasant morning and traffic should not be bad at that time. Yet, I got 6 taxis stopped and ask me for between RM30 to 40 – no meter. I refused. I just wanted to see how long it would take me. The 7th taxi after 35 minutes – a young driver hailed from Pg – stopped and put on the meter. I was impressed with him, his attitude and cleanliness. But the point is 1 in 7 is willing to go on meter. That is a 15% chance. My destination cost less than RM15. But I was happy to give him RM20. And he was happy too. My point is our taxis are actually one of the worst in Asia. Perhaps on par with India at the bottom rung. No pun intended but we need to face up to reality. We should legalize Uber or GrabTaxi or whatever not. If our taxis want to keep their customer, they have to change to provide better services than Uber and the like. If the suffer because of bad business is because of their own doing. If they think we have too many taxis, they should go to HK and Taipei and see for themselves.
Please compare the pricing they are charging as well, local taxi are too cheap even after the rise in fare. Do bare in mind, taxi is a luxury 1 to 1 service. Anyhow it was all due to the corrupted and mismanagement of government. Nobody should take advantage of anyone for their own convenience or benefits
I am working in India and I have to disagree with your assessment. Apart from driving recklessly, which mind you is how Indians drive anyway no matter you are in a tata or BMW, most of the cabs here are either ola, taxiforsure, uber, megacab or meru. All of them run on apps and metre, you don’t even have to worry if they will harrass you for tips as you can lodge a complaint against them instantly via the app and they will be penalized. Unless you are referring to Mumbai, which I believe they still have flag down kind of cabs. Most of the cities now only have apps-based cabs. Uber is the best as they only allow car that is less than 5 years I believe. But the biggest player here is Ola (surprise surprise). Why? Because they innovate and try to compete with Uber by providing better service and more cars on the road. The point is, allowing competition will only create better service. It is a win win situation for all. Only the fools who have been blinded by the government who control taxi permits will protest against such move. Sometimes I just couldn’t understand why instead of earning a rm10 trip, they would rather wait for a rm50 trip knowingly it is highly unlikely.
Uber and Grabcar harapan kami. Our majority more than taxi drivers. We win.
Habuskan ganster taxi drivers..!
Habuskan ganster taxi company!
Who care all these rubbish taxi driver, hahaha.
I am amused by the pictures of I LOVE PM banners hold by those taxi drivers. Those taxi drivers are real ass kissers.
Hell lo! no need to bodek Nacheat. Guaranteed; He’s not going to take your taxi. U guys are scumbags. Who says Uber drivers will not go for the PSV licence and follow other regulations if they are given a chance. Your taxi goes for Puspakom inspections! Really?
The supply is obviously not sufficient that every time I wanted to go somewhere no taxi would take me.
Hahahaha joker… Can we banned the income tax department for affecting our income badly? If can please proceed to ban uber
let the rakyat have all the options
Taxi driver choose their customer, grabcar Uber no.
Taxi driver simply open price no use metre, grabcar Uber charge fare according to distance.
Taxi dirty n smelly, grabcar Uber clean and smell nice.
This is obvious victory.
Support the above post 110%…i’m all for grabcar….way forward for public usage unti and when they are up to the mark
Agreed 110%…..
I think Ali Tinju should replace Syed Hamid Albar and take over SPAD?
He’s the right person to teach Malaysian Taxi drivers how to use their taxi meter with force!.
Those gangster taxi drivers only care about what they want, are they even care about what the rakyat wants? The service quality of uber and grabcar wins hands down.
Wake up taxi gangsters, look into the mirror.
Hampuskan taxi gangsters!!
SPAD tdk menjalankan kerja2 inforcemen. sekiranya spad lakukannya tiada masalah industry teksi di msia. yg salah di beri warning. tiada warning 1 2 3. potong lesen kad pemandu 5 tahun.
pengguna. ade 40000 teksi dilembah klang. sekiranya anda boikot teksi tdk guna meter tdk memuaskan dsbnya perkara ini juga tdk berlaku. mentality anda sbgi pengguna harus berubah. bukan hanya teksi malahan apa2 perkhidmatan mahupun barangan.
pengusaha/syarikat teksi. mengambil kesempatan keatas penyewa. tiada undang2 yg memihak kpd penyewa. rata2 perjanjian berat sebelah. sewa permit sehingga 800 sbln. sdgkan mereka bayar kpd spad hanya setahun sekali dlm linkungan 500.
pemandu. sukar dikawal krn tiada kursus khusus diberikan. mahupun etika. ada sekadar bbrp jam sja disekolah memandu. tiada kursus pengenslan jln dsb.