Last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak stated that the government will be coming up with a fair policy solution for taxis and ride-hailing apps like Uber and Grab after some 100 taxi drivers staged a huge protest at Bukit Bintang.
The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) announced that they will carry out a transformation of taxi service this year, which includes creating a mobile application for public taxis.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said the new mobile application would be able to provide comfort and convenience to passengers. This development will be in cooperation with mobile network service providers.
“We will ensure the well-being of taxi drivers. Please trust the government,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday (Monday, 4th April).
The deputy minister also said that Uber and GrabCar services had become passengers’ preferred choice just because their system are easily accessible, and not because local taxi services are of poor quality.
We are not sure if the mobile app idea will work because Kuala Lumpur taxi services were ranked one of the worst in the world last year. On a side note, wasn’t SPAD suppose to launch an app called Mesra Cab in February 2016?
Source: Bernama.
