This is the lament of taxi company owners following the revelation that thousands of taxi drivers were returning their cars to the companies, who stand to suffer losses of up to RM60 million in revenue by the end of the year, TheSun reported today.
One such company boss said that the industry was experiencing a rapid decline with fewer new drivers to lease their taxis to, and existing taxis being returned by cabbies unwilling to carry on under the present circumstances.
“On average, it has been between RM15 million and RM20 million losses monthly across the industry. The business was bad post-GST. With Uber and Grab in the picture, we are suffering even more.
“Take for example, a new Proton Persona taxi at a cost of RM50,000 each. Imagine, if one operator cannot lease out 50 Persona taxis or have them returned (by the drivers),” Avenue Drive Sdn Bhd Managing Director Abd Razak Abd Aziz told the daily about the very real possibility of losing RM2.5 million under such a scenario.
“And that is for a small taxi company. Think about the big taxi operators and the whole industry, as there will be some 20,000 abandoned taxis in the coming months. Think about the taxi operators having to service bank loans and other costs,” he added.
According to TheSun, Razak said about 20 taxis had been returned to his company in the past four months alone while 60 new taxis were lying idle in his company depot since early this year.
The daily also visited several other depots belonging to taxi companies in Rawang, Selayang, Kepong, Ampang, Pandan, Seri Kembangan and Shah Alam, and found that around 1,600 taxis were lying idle, comprising used and new cars.
A manager of one of the companies said under condition of anonymity that the media must highlight the “un-level playing field between taxis and ride-sharing services.”
“Please ask SPAD what it is doing by allowing Uber and Grab to operate illegally, without Puspakom inspection and other things,” he said, according to TheSun.
One public transport industry observer said it was likely that many taxi companies will fold in the next two years if ride-sharing services like Uber and Grab continued to keep their prices lower than that charged by conventional taxis.
“The cheaper fare is the primary reason why many passengers are ditching taxis and switching to Grab or Uber. It is already affecting both cabbies and taxi operators badly,” Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) liaison manager YS Chan told TheSun.