Laws to be amended to regulate e-hailing services and issuance of new individual taxi permits

KUALA LUMPUR: Two laws will be amended and tabled in the 2017 Parliament sitting to regulate e-hailing services and issuance of new individual taxi permits.
Minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Nancy Shukri said amendments will be made to the Land Transport Act 2010 and the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act 1987.
"This will allow the government to implement several programmes and reforms to have a fairer terms and conditions for taxi permit rental and regulating e-hailing services nationwide," she told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Nancy said the e-hailing services will operate based on the laws and regulations similar to the existing regulations for taxi service which are important to ensure customers' safety.
She added among the main focus in the initiatives are in issuing licenses or new individual permits for existing taxi drivers to assist them to transfer from the rental permit system.
"The government will also allocate RM5,000 cash grant to those qualified to purchase new taxis," she said in response to Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS-Kota Bharu) who asked the government to state the criteria imposed on Uber services and to what extent it is affecting the income of taxi drivers.
Nancy said the terms and conditions in the taxi permit rental system will also be upgraded and regulated to ensure the welfare of taxi drivers.
She urged taxi drivers to upgrade their technology to provide an improved service based on consumer demands and market trend.
"The government's recent study showed that more than 50% of consumers use mobile apps to get taxi services but only 14% of the taxi drivers are inclined to obtaining customers using mobile apps.
"So there is clearly a big gap in using the mobile apps for taxi service. Thus the e-hailing services should not be seen as a competition to the conventional taxi drivers but it should be used as an opportunity to balance the demands and market trend," Nancy said.
To a supplementary question where Takiyuddin highlighted the protest by taxi drivers outside Parliament, Nancy admitted taxi drivers are affected by Uber and GrabCar services with liability for one driver per day is RM55 to pay rental, whereas it is zero rental for Uber and Grabcar drivers.