Dego Ride: Malaysia wants to emulate developed countries in disallowing motorcycle taxi services

Malaysia is emulating developed countries which do not use motorcycle taxi services to ensure the safety of road users, says Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi.

"There are no motorcycle taxi services in developed nation cities such as Tokyo, Singapore, London and New York, so we want to emulate them to be much safer," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Dr Mansor Abd Rahman (BN-Sik) who wanted to know why Dego Ride was not allowed to operate in the country, although neighboring countries such as Thailand and Indonesia used the service.

Ab Aziz said an analysis by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) found that the risk of motorcyclists being involved in accidents which were fatal or caused serious injuries was 42.5 times higher than travelling in a bus, and 16 times higher than in a car.

"Statistics in 2016 showed that 62 per cent of the 7,152 victims killed on the road involved motorcyclists and pillion riders," he said.

He said people in the country had many choices of public transport such as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and commuter services.

Replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Mujahid Yusof (Amanah-Parit Buntar) regarding specific law for Uber and Grab ride hailing services, Ab Aziz said the amendment to the Land Public Transport Act to regulate Uber and Grab using 'e-hailing' methods was expected to be tabled in Parliament this session.