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.
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.
