At a press conference, he said the vocational licence was only intended for registration purposes and a minimum fee of RM10 would be charged.

“A special vocational licence will be introduced for p-hailing that will not be the same as the GDL for four-wheeled vehicles, as the latter requires a dedicated course,” he said.

Wee added that there would be a one-year moratorium for p-hailing riders to obtain the licence without having to pay a fee.

He was responding to claims that the transport ministry intended to burden p-hailing riders by amending certain laws.

Earlier, the Malaysian P-Hailing Delivery Riders Association (Penghantar) said the p-hailing community’s meeting with Wee had left them with more questions than answers.

Penghantar president Zulhelmi Mansor said not only were the p-hailing riders’ 10 issues not met, they now felt they would be burdened if amendments to the law requiring them to possess a GDL were passed.

Zulhelmi said among the 10 issues raised at the meeting were a floor price for delivery charges and digital maps which have a different distance from the actual trip.

Wee assured that the registration process for the vocational licence would be “cheap and easy”, adding that it was necessary to allow the ministry to collect data on p-hailing riders.

“At the moment, we don’t know the total number of p-hailing riders because there are no records,” he said. “We can only provide them assistance if we have their data.”

Wee also said that the ministry was only referring to the proposed vocational licence as GDL as it had yet to come up with a suitable name.

Food delivery riders were supposed to have gone on a nationwide strike last Thursday to protest against poor pay, prompting Wee to call for a meeting with them on Monday.

During the meeting, Wee said the transport ministry would table amendments to three Acts to protect the welfare and interest of riders.