“Uber trips are covered from the moment the driver accepts a trip to the moment it ends,” Uber Malaysia general manager Leon Foong said today, The Daily Express reported.
He added that anything that was not covered by the primary policy would be covered by additional policies for drivers and passengers.
Stressing that the cars registered by its driver partners must not be older than 10 years, Foong said that Uber preferred cars were under five years old.
“If a car is older than five years, then it would need a physical inspection before it’s allowed into the system,” he was quoted as saying by the daily, while adding that cars older than 10 years would not be covered by the contingent liability insurance.
He said Uber protected its driver partners but declined to reveal the nature of the protection on the grounds that it was confidential information.
“It’s something that we are not allowed to disclose, as the nature of protection for our driver partners is a private agreement with them,” Foong said, according to the Daily Express.
Foong also talked about mindsets and culture and said these were changing in favour of entrepreneurship. He elaborated that many no longer thought in terms of one being a professional like a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
He said there was no reason why a ride-sharing partner could not save RM40,000 and use that as a downpayment on 10 Perodua MyVi, for example.
“Such a person can then expand his or her business, by hiring out the 10 cars to people who can’t afford to buy a car.
“He or she can then make a percentage from each of the people he hires his car to every month,” Foong told the Sabah-based daily when touching on the opportunities one had to be a successful entrepreneur through the concept of ride-sharing.
Foong also expanded on the possibility of buying more cars and getting further revenue from starting a car wash and even a workshop. He said this branch of the business became viable once one had 50 or even 100 cars in one’s fleet.
He also cited the case of ex-IT head Brian Pereira, who generated residual income through internet marketing from a Facebook page in which he posts Uber-related snippets and attaches a link.
“I get RM100 in referral fees per person in Johor Bahru and Penang and RM200 per person from those based in the Klang Valley,” Pereira said.