Next year, the government will table amendments to two Acts to enable the implementation of the Taxi Industry Transformation Programme (TITP), including regulating taxi service using e-hailing applications such as Uber and GrabCar.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Nancy Shukri said the two Acts were the Land Public Transport Act 2010 and the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act 1987.

"The move to regulate is appropriate to ensure the safety of passengers and drivers," she told the Dewan Rakyat Monday.

She was replying to a question by Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS-Kota Bharu) on the criteria for taxi service using the e-hailing applications such as Uber and GrabCar, as well as their effects on the income of conventional taxi drivers.

Nancy said the implementation of e-hailing in the country was based on the high demand by consumers and the growing use of mobile technology in daily activities.

"The government found more than 50 percent of the taxi passengers in Malaysia are using mobile applications to obtain taxi while only 14 percent of taxi drivers are inclined to use applications to get passengers."

Therefore, she said the e-hailing service should not be seen as competition to conventional taxi but it should be looked as an opportunity for taxi drivers to complement and balance the demand and trend in the market.

Nancy said an online research showed more than 70 percent of the 45,000 respondents wanted e-hailing service to be implemented and regulated and 59 percent of the application users had never used taxi service.

"This shows there is new demand for clients from the mobile application segment. This is an opportunity for the industry to expand," she said.

TITP is an overall initiative to specially focus on improving the income and welfare of taxi drivers and to deliver quality service by using technology.

The programme was formulated to create a healthy and ideal taxi industry environment for drivers, passengers and operators, said Nancy.

Earlier, Land Public Transport Commission chairman (SPAD) Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar was reported as saying the amendments when passed, would require companies offering e-hailing taxi service to be incoporated, and all taxi drivers using applications were required to have driver's card issued by SPAD. -- Bernama