It says a lot about the country’s taxi sector after 30 cabbies were injured in their rush to collect assistance cards.
These questions come to mind:
- Why did a caretaker prime minister come down from his high pedestal to launch a petrol card that was only worth RM800, at a time when we are heading towards a general election?
- Why couldn’t the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) handle this matter in a more organised and effective manner?
- Is this part of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s political campaign?
- Is he out to buy over taxi drivers’ support?
Given the fact that there are about 76,000 taxi drivers in the country, a rather large and outspoken group against the government in the past, this RM800 voucher card could easily be misconstrued as a political initiative to rein them in.
In comparison, the number of Felda settlers is slightly higher at 77,934. That probably explains why some politicians seem to be concerned about the cabbies’ welfare.
If the government is truly interested to improve the taxi system (and the welfare of taxi drivers) that has been continuously undermined by the introduction of Uber and Grab for the past two-and-half years, shouldn’t they have launched the assistance cards two-and-half years ago rather than now?
To many taxi users, interested parties and taxi drivers themselves, this move is seen as very suspicious.
Problems that exist in the taxi sector are not new. The problems associated to this common mode of transport, especially in the urban areas of the Klang Valley and many other major towns throughout the country including Sabah and Sarawak, are quite similar.
Poor customer service, drivers with bad behaviour, drivers refusing to use the meter, poorly maintained vehicles, and more are rooted in one issue: the taxi licensing system that has been executed by the government through SPAD.
‘Pajak’ system
For too long, the taxi licensing system has favoured taxi companies, with “permits” issued to companies rather than individual taxi drivers.
It is not the fault of the taxi drivers. Indeed a lousy licensing system produces lousy taxi services and associated problems to taxi passengers.
It’s a fait accompli to many taxi drivers, who struggle and wade through the system and try to make a living from it.
This is the fundamental point which the government needs to realise, revamp and reboot once and for all. That is, if they truly want a better system.
Research has shown who owns these taxi companies. Most likely they are politicians, members of certain political parties, civil servants or certain people close to the government.
These taxi companies operate very much in their comfort zone. Having monopolised taxi “permits” for so long, they do not want to let it go. They have opposed any revision on the licensing system especially when the government talked about issuing “individual permits”. They made the biggest noise when Uber and Grab came into the market.
These taxi companies control the market via an operating system based on a “pajak” system, under which honest and hardworking taxi drivers have to pay a high deposit and a daily rental for the taxis they drive, but which they do not own.
This stringent and one-sided arrangement obviously benefits taxi companies because all the burden of paying the operating costs (petrol/diesel/LNG) and the cost of maintenance, vehicle upkeep, services and damages to the car are borne by the drivers.
Taxi drivers are already at the losing end by the time they sit behind the wheel and start looking for passengers. This goes on daily and over weeks and months. The heavy burden over what they have to pay taxi companies has forced some to fleece passengers, and to cut corners to find ways to save money.
So, is it any wonder that our taxi services are in such a bad state?
As pointed out above, this is the result of the licensing system the government adopted and executed over the years. This is where change is needed.
In order to improve, the policy on the licensing system should change. Taxi companies should be done away with as it has been proven time and again that the system has failed to deliver the kind of service required by the public. The system has also made taxi drivers very unhappy, rebellious and feel like they have been cheated by taxi companies.
Although efforts were made through SPAD to improve the situation of taxi services, the key focus has still not been on getting rid of taxi companies. Issuing taxi permits to individual taxi owners is the key element that is missing.
It has been pointed out that there was political interference every time the issue cropped up. An open secret among taxi drivers is that many politicians are part of the set-up, some of whom directly own taxi companies.
SPAD initiatives
SPAD has introduced a number of initiatives in the past aimed at improving the local taxi sector to meet the needs and expectations of passengers under the Taxi Transformation Programme.
This is one of the key components of the National Key Results Areas for Urban Public Transport (NKRA-UPT). The programme began with the Teksi Rakyat 1Malaysia (TR1Ma) in 2012, which provided 76,000 drivers with vouchers for new tyres, Personal Accident (PA) insurance coverage, road tax exemption, 50% toll subsidies, and excise and sales tax exemption on individual license holders.
Although it pleased taxi drivers when first announced, the programme did not fully translate into an improvement in services. In other words, it failed miserably.
The majority of taxi drivers are still discontented with the structural issue which is the licensing system that has produced the “pajak” system. The Taxi Transformation Programme has not eliminated the system, seen by almost all taxi drivers as “sucking” on them.
Therefore, any improvement to the taxi sector must be accompanied by an elimination of the “pajak” system. And this system can only be done away with by changing the structural policy in the licensing system i.e. by issuing taxi permits to individual taxi drivers, rather than taxi companies.
New criteria
Drivers who are given a taxi permit each will no longer work for a taxi company. Taxi companies, on the other hand, will not have any reason to exist if they cannot hire drivers.
Once taxi companies are gone, the “pajak” system will die a natural death, so to speak.
The new licensing system should rely heavily on a genuine taxi owner/driver system, where a taxi permit is issued to a single owner/driver only. Certain prerequisites or criteria must be met before SPAD issues a taxi permit.
Once taxis are owned and operated by genuine taxi drivers, the other key elements that will give rise to service improvement and quality can be put in place.
For instance, taxi owners/drivers who have invested in purchasing a taxi will want to remain in the service for many years to come.
This is their commitment to the taxi service sector. The threat of having their taxi permit suspended or withdrawn over minor offences is going to be a major issue to them. They will not want to risk losing their taxi permit. Therefore, they will strive hard to deliver good service, provide good customer care and become more service oriented.
And since the vehicle is now owned by them, naturally they will also look after the vehicle, and not cut corners with vehicle maintenance. Safety is another element that will become a priority to these new owners/drivers.
Given that they now own well-maintained taxis, they can easily register for e-hailing services. E-hailing is one key element as details of the taxi owner/driver is displayed clearly to all taxi users.
The revamp in the licensing system will set the cabbies community for life, make them happier and definitely be worth more than the RM800 voucher, for sure.
Rosli Khan has spent over 30 years in the transport industry managing more than 100 consultancy projects.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.