Amendments to Act will improve taxi, Uber, Grabcar services

Amendments to the Land Public Transport Act 2010 (APAD) by Parliament yesterday will improve and transform the quality of taxi and e-hailing services such as Uber and Grabcar throughout the country.

The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said the amendments would ensure that service operators and drivers would implement the highest safety and service standards including the mandatory background inspection.

"The Commission is also empowered to introduce and enforce regulations such as compelling the operators of the e-hailing service to hand over information pertaining to the journeys and vehicles used to SPAD for the planning of land public transportation," SPAD said in a statement today.

According to SPAD, besides the fact that fares for e-hailing would not be regulated but would be determined by market forces, the amendment was capable of raising the income of drivers through the use of a dynamic fare structure when using the e-hailing application or the metered taxi fare rate when picking up passengers by the roadside.

The change is reasonable and capable of giving more choice to consumers and at the same time providing fair competition for the taxi industry through the use of the latest technology which was more responsive to market forces.

"SPAD will outline more details on the amendments to APAD, and the legal impact on the taxi industry and e-hailing services in the near future,"said SPAD.

Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said Malaysia created history as the first country using the e-hailing services such as Uber and Grabcar as a public transport service that is recognised legally.

This became a reality after Parliament passed a bill yesterday to recognise the services of e-hailing in the country.

-- BERNAMA