No joy for taxi drivers despite 'free tyre' vouchers

Despite the government dishing out tyre vouchers - dubbed Teksi Rakyat 1Malaysia (TR1MA) - to woo taxi drivers, the group is less than pleased about the assistance.

When met at a Pakatan Rakyat taxi drivers' gathering on Thursday, several taxi drivers said that the RM520 vouchers to change their vehicles' four tyres were insufficient as they have to fork out additional money to pay workshops for the tyre change.

S Mahesan, 53, a taxi driver of two years said the vouchers should help alleviate the financial burden of taxi drivers, but the opposite is true.

"They (government) give us free tyres but after we take them, the workshops charge us RM30 to install a pair of tyres - four would cost RM60.

"If it is full assistance then we shouldn't be expected to fork out the extra money," he said.

Meanwhile, Khalid Hasni, 42 who has been driving taxis for almost 10 years in the Klang Valley said another problem with the vouchers was that they are intended for size 13 tyres.

As a result, Khalid said he and his fellow taxi drivers who use Proton Waja are forced to pay more as the vehicle uses size 14 tyres.

"Size 13 tyres are normally for cars like Proton Iswara, Wira or Saga. Waja has size 14 tyres, but the vouchers are for size 13, so taxi drivers using Wajas have to pay the difference out of their own pockets.

"It's not that the vouchers do not help, but they don't help much when we need to fork out our own money," he said.

Not the right fit
Facing a similar problem is S Vineswaran, 42, who has been a taxi driver for almost four years.

He said even with the RM520 vouchers, Proton Waja drivers have to pay an additional RM400 to change all four tyres.

"In my case, to change each tyre would cost RM230, four tyres would come to a total of RM920. The voucher is good enough for two tyres, the other two, we have to spend our own money and that does not even include the costs of installation and balancing," he said.

He added that taxi drivers also faced several bigger woes such as problems with Puspakom inspection centres, the monopoly of taxi licences and illegal taxi drivers.

"It would be a lie to say that the government doesn't know about this," he said.