Toyota Innova as new addition to TEKS1M fleet
PETALING JAYA: The taxi industry received a boost with the introduction of Toyota Innova as part of Teksi 1Malaysia (TEKS1M) fleet, as an addition to the Proton Exora.
Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) expects around 300 Innova models to beef up the gold-brown TEKS1M fleet by year-end, in its quest to meet the commission's key-performance index to convert 42,642 budget and executive taxis to migrate to TEKS1M in the next five years.
To date, SPAD has issued 1,382 TEKS1M licences, a far cry from the commission's KPI of reaching 5,000 TEKS1M vehicles by end of 2015.
"We aim to increase TEKS1M vehicles availability from time to time. That's why Innova has been selected as an option, other than Proton Exora. Both models fit our requirements for the space of cabin inside as well as offering comfort to passengers while the drivers will be able to increase their daily income," said SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar at the launching of Toyota Innova at One World Hotel here today.
Other than the conversion to TEKS1M service, SPAD chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismal Kamal said that the commission would allow the market force in the taxi industry to determine whether operators want the taxis to run as executive or budget taxi and change to TEKS1M.
"Until today, 1,021 TEKS1M operators have undergone training with us and there will be more cabbies to be trained in our objective for TEKS1M and our cabbies to emerge as one of the best cab services in Asia by 2017," he said.
As reported exclusively by theSun two months ago, Toyota Innova has been identified by SPAD as an option for TEKS1M vehicle and to address the production supply issue of Proton Exora since last year.
The Toyota Innova 2.0 litre is available for sale as TEKS1M at RM72,550 for manual transmission and RM75,333 for automatic transmission with the option to install NGV system at RM5,000 and it will be equipped as well with tracking performance device Centralised Taxi Service System (CTSS), cashless machine and other new features.