Taxi rules now apply to e-hailing rides

Cabbies applaud as PM announced that the rules were approved by Cabinet and gazetted on April 6.

Najib Razak, speaking to 10,000 taxi drivers today, says the government will protect their rice bowl.

SERDANG: All e-hailing and hire car drivers are now legally required to adhere to the same conditions and regulations as taxi drivers, Prime Minister Najib Razak said today, saying this came into effect on April 6.

He said the rules included background checks, training requirements and periodic vehicle inspections.

“I realise that taxi drivers face many obstacles and challenges. I am aware that the income of taxi drivers has been somewhat affected by the existence of e-hailing services in our country.

“The e-hailing service has a demand but we have to do something through government intervention to protect the rice bowl of the taxi drivers,” he said at the presentation of 1Malaysia Taxi Assistance Card today.

About 10,000 taxi drivers from all over the country attended the event, which was attended by Nancy Shukri, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, and Mohd Isa Abdul Samad, acting chairman of SPAD, the Land Public Transport Commission.

Najib said the Cabinet paper on the new rules for the e-hailing service were presented by Nancy and SPAD and approved by the Cabinet on April 6.

“I instructed that the rules be gazetted for enforcement the same day,” he said to the applause of the taxi drivers present.

Later, taxi drivers approached by Bernama expressed support for the government’s move.

Ali Tahar, 58, said taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur were severely affected by e-hailing services such as Grab and Uber in the past few years.

E-hailing drivers were not subjected to the strict regulations applied on taxi drivers.

“I used to drive the executive (blue) taxi but I was forced to return it because I could not settle the RM13,000 debt. Now, my wife and I share the task of driving the 1Malaysia Taxi,” he said.

Ali’s wife, Salwa Samion, 48, said the enforcement of the new rules should be transparent. E-hailing drivers should be required to carry an identification sticker on their vehicles, just like taxis.

“Road Transport Department (JPJ) rules regard taxis as commercial vehicles because they carry passengers. However, e-hailing cars are private vehicles and there should be uniformity with the taxis,” she said.

Noorhisham Mohamad, 32, said he had to sell one of his two taxis to buy a new car and become a Grab driver over the past eight months because his income had been affected by the e-hailing.

“Right now I take turns to run a taxi and a Grab service to make up for the loss of income. There is a big difference in the income compared to when I was just driving a taxi,” he said.

Noorhisham said he supported the introduction of the new rules because the service could be more effectively regulated. -FMT