Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri said the government could not control the open market demands and if the trend were not followed by the conventional taxi service providers, they would be marginalised and left far behind.
“That is why we have introduced e-hailing. Although they (conventional taxis) do not believe (in the benefits of e-hailing), they should realise that it is a new trend, especially among young people.
“Over 50% of taxi service users are now using this application (e-hailing) and they are not long-time taxi users, but new ones. Seventy per cent of our 45,000 survey respondents are using this application.”
Nancy said this after appearing as a guest of the Bernama News Channel’s “Ruang Bicara” programme at Wisma Bernama here last night.
The minister said the conventional taxi service providers should look at the application of technology from the perspective of it being more convenient and open, instead of viewing it as a competitor.
“If they do not use e-hailing, these taxis will have to go round looking for potential passengers. Imagine the operational costs such as fuel cost. If they use the application, they don’t need to go around looking for customers as they would be booked through the e-hailing application,” she said.
However, Nancy is optimistic that this technology would eventually be well accepted by the conventional taxis and the country would be seeing a transformation of its taxi industry and a more systematic transport sector.
“Hopefully, they (conventional taxis) will enjoy the benefits of e-hailing. So far, about 14,000 taxi drivers have started using this application. If the others do not do so, they will be left behind economically.
Malaysia created history by being the first country to make e-hailing services, such as Grab and Uber, legitimate public transport service after the Land Public Transport (Amendment) Bill 2017 and the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (Amendment) Bill 2017 were passed by the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara.
Under the amendments, the conditions set include requiring taxi drivers to undergo health checks and to have insurance coverage and a driver’s card, and their taxis checked periodically.