SPAD: Taxi industry needs revamp, and drivers need to behave

Mohd-Azharuddin-Mat-Sah KUALA LUMPUR: Taxi drivers need to change their behaviour and operators need to revamp their business models, Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) Chief Executive Officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said today.

He said SPAD had received more than 9,000 complaints about taxi drivers since the beginning of 2015, and 40 per cent of these were about the taxi drivers’ behaviour, the poor service quality and taxi drivers not using meters.

He reiterated that there was a need for a change in taxi drivers’ behaviour, adding that SPAD enforcement officers were “paying a lot of attention” to taxi drivers who failed to use the meter.

On the matter of changing business models, Mohd Azharuddin said taxi drivers must be given the opportunity to be entrepreneurs.

Also, taxi operators “need to support technology” and “encourage competition”. They should realise that customers prefer to use Apps because these are fast.

He said an integrated solution was needed to solve the conflicts between taxi drivers and private chauffeur services.

“It is important to understand both sides: the consumer’s point of view and also the problems that the taxi drivers face,” he said at a press interview at SPAD’s headquarters in Platinum Sentral Kuala Lumpur.

Mohd Azharuddin said there were several major issues that needed to be addressed, including a supply and demand mismatch.

“Most taxis still practice ‘street hailing’, which means they wait at a certain spot and hope that there will be a customer. But what customers want are mobile applications that are easy to use and fast.

“Another huge problem is the cost of being a taxi driver. From rent to maintenance, it is extremely expensive to be a taxi driver, we understand that. As expensive as it is, their revenue remains stagnant,” Mohd Azharuddin said.

“There has to be a level playing field in order to create competition. As of now, Uber and GrabCar are not within the law. The first thing we need to do is to amend the law,” he said.

He added that SPAD had submitted papers to the Cabinet for consideration in amending the law to allow private chauffeur services to operate, but under the same conditions as taxi drivers.

“Insurance, maintenance, cost… everything has to be the same before it’s a level playing field. However we do not want to raise the bar (of cost), instead we want to lower it for the Uber and GrabCar drivers.

“We know that they won’t want to pay extra fees, so we are trying to find a middle ground for both taxi drivers and private chauffer services,” he explained.

Mohd Azharuddin said SPAD aspired to be an interactive and friendly public agency, where people could file complaints easily.

“We want to reach out to the public; we want to hear them out and we want to provide solutions. We know that the whole taxi issue is an urgent issue, we want to solve it quickly. It affects the people and we are working towards finding the best solution,” he said.