2,800 cabbies have joined Grab, Uber
The government will conduct a lab to discuss and collect informa on in order to find a holis c solu on to protect the welfare of taxi operators in Sabah whose incomes are badly affected by compe on from the e-hailing services.
TUARAN: The government will conduct a lab to discuss and collect information in order to find a holistic solution to protect the welfare of taxi operators in Sabah whose income were badly affected by competition from the e-hailing services.
Tenom MP Datuk Raime Unggi, who is also the Sabah Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) chairman, said the lab with taxi operators would be held in early February, to coordinate the current rules and regulations, and also to find out what would be the immediate and long-term actions to be taken to address the issue.
He said this yesterday at the TN50 dialogue at Intan Campus, which was attended by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri. The dialogue was moderated by CVLB Sabah director Arfian Julian.
Nancy said taxi drivers in Sabah should consider registering with the e-hailing services such as Grab and Uber, because their applications had been well-received by Malaysians and it was time for them to look at the opportunity.
She said taxi drivers could get more customers through the mobile applications as at the same time they could continue receiving customers through the traditional street hailing.
“But since there are many issues that need to be discussed, we will have the lab to make sure all information will be delivered to the taxi operators. We also want to know the local issues here.
“Apart from encouraging taxi drivers to join the e-hailing services, the government has also spoken to these companies to give priority to our taxi drivers to join them because I believe conventional taxi drivers are more loyal in providing the taxi service,” she said.
Nancy said around 600 taxi drivers had registered with Uber while some 2,200 taxi drivers had joined Grab in the peninsula as of last week.
Feedback were collected from the drivers, and it is time for the taxi drivers in Sabah to find out their own experience.
“I am not going to promote these companies because we want the taxi drivers to make their own decision.
“I also hope our taxi operators will be more open for discussions with the e-hailing services, and to look at a winwin solution,” she added.
Other than taxi operators, the dialogue was also attended by chartered vehicle operators, students, wheelchair associations and representatives from various government departments.
A total of 15 aspirations were shared. However, the secretariat also invited the guests to share their aspirations in writing.