Malaysia's taxi service not satisfactory, but not worst in the world

Malaysia must admit that services of its taxi drivers is indeed far below par, said Tourism Malaysia chairman Wee Choo Keong.

But he denied that the taxi service in the country was the worst in the world and stressed Malaysia must have the courage to admit its own weakness in the interest of the public transport service.

"It's not fair for us to be labelled the worst, there are many other countries who have worse taxi services.

"However, the state of our taxi service is not satisfactory and we have to accept this," he said when contacted by Bernama here, today.

He said this when asked to comment on LondonCabs.co.uk portal report which placed Malaysian taxi drivers at the top of the list of '10 Countries with the Worst Taxi Drivers in the World'.

Wee said the report will have an impact on the country's tourism industry.

The report also commented that some taxi drivers do not use the meter and impose high charges, especially for foreign tourists.

Meanwhile, Federal Territory and Selangor Taxi Operators Association (Perpekli) president, Datuk Aslah Abdullah questioned the credibility of the report.

"They only make statements based on perception without coming down and seeing for themselves the state of the taxi service in Malaysia.

"They should make a more thorough study and go to the ground to meet those in the industry such as the taxi drivers themselves," he said.

Aslah also stressed that the enforcement system should be tightened with more intensive training given to taxi drivers.