Taxi drivers told to buck up

Those were the words of Land and Public Transport System (SPAD) chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar as he hopes to see Klang Valley taxi drivers buck up and provide better service to the public.

Syed Hamid was commenting on Astro Awani's recent report 'KL cabbies still not using meters' that revealed the poor services rendered by taxi drivers in the city. Transport comparision website londoncabs.co.uk, had also recently ranked Kuala Lumpur drivers first in its list of '10 Countries with the Worst Taxi Drivers'.

"We would like to see the taxi service here reach to a self-regulated level, on par with developed nations with the hope that it remove us from the 'worst taxi drivers list'," said Syed Hamid.

To overcome this issue, SPAD has been monitoring the situation through various means of enforcement including an integrated enforcement system with the police, Road Transport Department and Kuala Lumpur City Hall.

"SPAD already have good and strict laws. What is important is compliance with the regulations and determination to provide good service to the passengers," Syed Hamid added.

He said SPAD has also launched a new hotline for the public to lodge their complaints.

Syed Hamid added that through the hotline, the public will be able to give information to SPAD for the enforcement agency to take action.

"I am very optimistic SPAD’s new hotline system. This is a great system for people to communicate and for SPAD to take action immediately. This indicates that SPAD is sensitive to people's needs

"I urge the public to use this new channel to communicate directly with us. SPAD requires detailed information in order to take action so that it can be done more effectively," he added.

In our earlier report, it was revealed 12 out of 13 taxi drivers refused to use meters and fixed a price for destinations within the Klang Valley.

One taxi driver even demanded RM20 for a 2km drive from Pudu Sentral to Dataran Merdeka on a Sunday afternoon. The fare would usually range between RM3.80 to RM4.20, depending on traffic.

The main excuse given by the drivers who demanded for steep fares was bad traffic.