KUALA LUMPUR: Persatuan Pemandu Aplikasi Malaysia (PPAM), a non-profit organisation today urged all e-hailing companies to enhance the safety features of drivers following the recent Grab driver murder Mohammad Hanafiee Jaafar in Sabah.
Its secretary, Mohamad Nor Hamzah said this includes upgrading the security features of the SOS (emergency) button with continuous monitoring from the e-hailing company, in cooperation with relevant parties.
“The SOS button which is provided in the driver’s application now does not help during an emergency situation such as being robbed, molested and others.
“The drivers need to go through several levels before their (telephone) lines are connected to the authorities for action.
“This process takes time and something had happened before the authorities take action,“ he told reporters after lodging a report on the weakness of e-hailing system driver application at Dang Wangi District police headquarters here today.
He also suggested the e-hailing companies set compulsory requirements to display real faces and names on customer profiles for security purposes.
Mohamad Nor said the security issues involving e-hailing drivers will be brought to the Transport Ministry for further action, and all e-hailing service businesses should update their security system within two weeks so as to prevent similar incidents.
At 12.30am on Sunday, a car believed to be Mohd Hanafiee’s was found at the Ramadan bazaar area in Indah Permai, Sepanggar with blood stains on the steering wheel, handbrake, front door, and windshield. The body of the victim believed to be robbed and murdered was discovered in Tuaran.
In June last year, another Grab driver, Aiman Nosri, was found dead in his vehicle at the Taman Selayang Baru park in Selangor, while last April, a Grab driver was flogged by two Nepali men in Seberang Prai, Penang.
Meanwhile, E-hailing provider, Grab Malaysia yesterday insisted on have always put the priority to protect the safety of its community by continuing to develop tech-driven solutions, community awareness, and education programmes.
It said Grab has in place a variety of tools such as the emergency button and “share my ride” feature where both parties are able to share trip details and live GPS locations with friends and/or loved ones, and the recently launched passenger selfie verification. — Bernama
