Teksi 1Malaysia revamp proposed

KUALA LUMPUR: The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) has proposed to the Cabinet for a revamp of Teksi 1Malaysia (TEKS1M) which will give all cabbies an opportunity to own individual taxi permits under the ‎liberalisation of permits initiative by year-end.
SPAD chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah (pix) told theSun that the proposal sought for individual taxi permits to be issued to cabbies with good and clean track records so as to help them exit the "pajak"‎ (leasing) model and move towards entrepreneurship.
He said cabbies who qualify for individual permits, should be given funds to buy new vehicles.
Dubbed as an overhaul plan to solve the long outstanding issue of the "pajak" system that has been plaguing the industry for ages, selected cabbies would enjoy a special fund to buy new sedans under a rebranded TEKS1M.
It is learned that new sedan and hatchback models such as Perodua Myvi, Axia, Bezza and Proton Iriz will be included under the TEKS1M fleet with only compact cars to be restricted from transporting passengers to and from airports.
It is among SPAD's 11 initiatives for taxi service transformation and implementation of e-hailing services to be decided by the Cabinet this week.
The last individual permits issuance exercise by SPAD was in 2013 when nearly 2,000 permits were given under TEKS1M's first phase. It was done through the replacement of dormant cab permits instead of creating new ones.
Currently, there are around 77,000 cabbies nationwide consisting of metered taxis and hired car drivers with 40% holding individual permits.
The commission is also mulling to set up a service contract for taxi companies which include long term KPI and benefits for cabbies.
"It will create an employee-employer relationship and cab companies will have to make it attractive for cabbies to stay," said a senior government official.
Apparently, at least six cab companies are in talks for a merger to prepare for the new taxi industry landscape.
Under the proposal, said a Transport Ministry official, the permits will also be opened to individuals registered with app-based transport network operator (TNO) such as Grab and Uber.
"To be eligible for the individual permits, one must not have outstanding traffic summonses and criminal record," he said.
In the next 36 months, it is estimated about 150,000 new individual permit holders will co-exist in the market.
It will consist of new faces such as conventional cabbies, Uber, Grab, Cab 2Go and other app-based drivers.
However, it remains unclear whether the insurance industry and financial institutions have agreed to allow private cars to be converted to modern taxis.
"The government will also need to solve the tax issue with Uber (the company) before e-hailing takes off," said the insider.