JPJ director-general Aedy Fadly Ramli said the vehicles – a Toyota Alphard, Toyota Vellfire, Toyota Hiace and Honda Spada – were found to be carrying passengers from Singapore and other countries into Malaysia via the Singapore route for tourism purposes.

“The results of the inspection found that the vehicles involved did not have a valid operator’s licence, were not registered as public service vehicles, and did not have Malaysian road tax,” he said in a press conference at JPJ Taman Daya here last night.

The vehicles were detained and seized under Section 80 of the Land Public Transport Act 2010 with investigations under Section 16(1) of the same Act for the operation of public service vehicles without a valid operator’s licence.

“There will be no more compromise for any illegal e-hailing vehicles operating in Malaysia. We will take this action to court for the process of confiscating the vehicles,” Aedy said.

Also present were JPJ senior enforcement director Muhammad Kifli Ma Hassan and Johor JPJ director Azmil Zainal Adnan.

Aedy said initial investigations found that the drivers were promoting their services via social media, WhatsApp and Telegram, as well as through stickers on vehicles, with travel charges much higher than the permitted rates.

He gave an example of Singapore-Johor Bahru travel charges reaching S$180 (RM591) per person for one trip, while charges for trips to Ipoh were recorded at up to S$1,200 (RM3,946) each.