First ride-hailing app for taxis launched

PETALING JAYA: Klang Valley taxi drivers get to offer ride-hailing app starting August, their first foray into the Uber-pioneered smartphone-based technology that has disrupted the world taxi industry within a short space of four years.
"Our target is to get 5,000 taxis drivers to join us by then," said Tengku Hasmadi Tengku Hashim, the executive chairman of Cab Auto Bus Sdn Bhd (CAB), the project proponent.
The 2GO is the brand for CAB's ride-hailing app.
"The taxi drivers will be selected by 15 signatories of the signing ceremony. They will comprise the best drivers with the nicest taxis," he said on the sideline of the ceremony at a Subang Jaya hotel today.
"We know that Uber and Grab have lower prices than SPAD's (Land Public Transport Commission). To compete in the initial phase, we are considering promotional rates that are lower than SPAD's. The law does not allow taxis to charge more, but it doesn't stop us from charging less," said Hasmadi, a veteran of the bus transport industry.
He left Konsortium Transnational Bhd as its chief operating officer more than a year ago.
AmBank Group will provide the payment gateway for riders who, in addition to cash, will also be able to pay by credit and debit cards.
"We want to help empower the Malaysian taxi drivers and this powerful ride-hailing app is the way forward," said AmBank's group CEO Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir.
"Our licensed taxi and limo drivers have been facing hardship in Malaysia for sometime, particularly in the Klang Valley," said the Selangor government committee for trade, investment, small and medium scale businesses, and transport chairman Datuk Teng Chang Khim.
"Therefore, I'm glad that CAB is now able to initiate programmes and work together with taxi associations that can help and benefit the taxi and limo community of drivers; starting in the Klang Valley and then spreading to other parts of the country in the shortest possible time," he said in his address at the signing ceremony.