‘Ministry has right to ban Dego Ride’

Liow: Differing views should have been raised during Cabinet meeting

KUALA LUMPUR: The Transport Ministry has the authority to ban motorcycle taxi service provider Dego Ride, says minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

“Unless the Cabinet orders us to conduct a study and submit a paper on the findings, the ministry has the authority to make this decision,” he said after chairing the MCA presidential council meeting yesterday.

Liow was responding to a statement by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri that the decision to ban Dego Ride was not final.

She also said that there were currently no laws regulating e-hailing services.

Liow pointed out that he had raised the ministry’s decision during the last Cabinet meeting as well as the reason behind the ban.

“If other ministries have suggestions or concerns, they should have raised these during the Cabinet meeting. If none were brought up, I would assume that there were no differing views.

“The Cabinet is an excellent platform to discuss various issues.

“But the ministry has already made our stand clear on the matter – be it during internal or Cabinet meetings,” he said, adding that the ministry would not acknowledge the service.

The ministry, Liow said, is very concerned over traffic accidents.

“At present, 62.7% of road fatalities are made up of motorcyclists. This is too serious.

“We feel this (allowing Dego Ride to operate) will increase the death rate. This is the basis for our deci- sion,” he said.

In an earlier report, Liow had said that under the Road Transport Act, motorcycles could not be used for commercial purposes.

Dego Ride is an app-based motorcycle ride-sharing service, similar to Uber and Grab.

The service began last November and at one point, had up to 6,000 motorcyclists participating in ride-sharing.

Users could make bookings via WhatsApp and the rates were RM2.50 for the first 3km and 60 sen for each subsequent kilometre.

We feel this (allowing Dego Ride to operate) will increase the death rate. This is the basis for our decision. Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai