Have you heard?
The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) has unveiled its Taxi Industry Transformation Programme (TITP), a Cabinet-approved plan to uplift the existing taxi industry and help regulate ride-hailing services such as Grab and Uber.
The programme is said to “resolve long-standing structural issues besetting the taxi industry” in order to create a fair playing field that benefits drivers, operators, and passengers.
The 4 key principles of the TITP are as follows:
- To help the industry leverage on technology
- To improve taxi drivers’ income and welfare
- To improve taxi drivers’ service quality
- To rationalise taxi fares
For starters, ride-hailing services will be regulated as an intermediary service under the Akta Pengangkutan Awam Darat 2010 (APAD) and drivers will be issued a Drivers’ Card issued once passed by Parliament.
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It was reported that starting 1st September, SPAD will issue individual taxi licenses under the metered taxi class and hired cars. Qualified cabbies exiting the rental (pajak) model will receive a cash grant up to RM5,000 to buy new cars. To further benefit taxi drivers, SPAD will also liberalise vehicle model choices to enable cabbies to afford more competitively-priced cars.
The new TEKS1M fares will have a minimum charge of RM3, plus surcharges of 25 sen/200 m and 25 sen/36 seconds instead of the existing rates of RM4, 30 sen/200 m and 30 sen/36 seconds respectively. Besides that, the existing zonal fare will be replaced by a distance based calculation for cabs picking up fares at airports and terminals.
What do you think of SPAD’s new plan? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Paul Tan, Free Malaysia Today.
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