Bad apples driving taxis to extinction

Poor service in the past, the technology tsunami and a merger have caused many people to switch from cab to Grab.

REMEMBER the days when you flagged a taxi and the driver refused to stop?

Remember the days when a taxi driver refused to use the meter and insisted on a flat rate? And you had no choice but to pay RM30 for a ride that would have cost RM7 if he had used the meter? You had no choice because a taxi mafia controlled the taxi stand.

Remember the days when it was peak hour and you desperately needed to go to destination X and the taxi driver refused to send you there because of a traffic jam unless you paid extra?

Back in those days, taxi drivers reigned.

And overall, I had a bad experience with them. That is why I have no sympathy for taxi drivers.

However, it is not a fair perception as not all of them behaved like that.

Back then, there were nice taxi drivers who would stop when you flagged them.

Back then, there were nice taxi drivers who would use the meter.

Back then, there were nice taxi drivers who picked you up even though you were heading to a place that was congested with traffic.

My memories of the days when taxi drivers reigned were triggered by an episode in Langkawi last Sunday, when a few bad apples made Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad say that he was prepared to resign as Prime Minister.

In a dialogue session with taxi drivers over “preferential treatment” given to Grab, about 10 of them shouted offensive words and walked out of the room after the Prime Minister said he would continue to find the best way to resolve the issue for the benefit of all parties.

“If (you) don’t believe that I can (help), do it yourself. See what happens. I want to help, but if you don’t help me, I cannot help.

“It’s not that I want to be Prime Minister. I have retired, but people called me back. That’s why I came. If you don’t want me to be the Prime Minister, I can resign today. It’s no problem for me,” Dr Mahathir said.

“If Malaysian cabbies can drive Tun Dr Mahathir to despair, imagine where they can drive you to,” my former colleague Paul Si wrote on his Facebook page.

When I read about how the taxi drivers drove Dr Mahathir to despair, I thought that these were dinosaurs who should wake up to the reality that we now live in the age of Grab and Uber.

They should evolve and embrace the e-hailing competition instead of believing that they are still in the Jurassic era, when rogue drivers could charge RM30 for a RM7 ride.

Some of these taxi drivers are stuck in a time warp.

For example, early this year, I took a bus from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Baru. When I arrived at the Larkin Sentral bus terminal at about 3am, I was sleepy.

Several taxi drivers were waiting and – because I was curious – I asked how much it would cost to go to a hotel in Mount Austin in JB.

The first driver quoted RM50 and I said, “No, thank you.” The second quoted RM30 and I mumbled, “No, thank you, I’d rather take Uber.”

I checked with Uber and the fare was RM7. Guess how I got to the hotel?

I loved Uber until the day (April 8, 2018) it withdrew from Malaysia when Grab acquired Uber’s SouthEast Asia operations and merged both ride-hailing companies’ operations in the region.

Now the choice for me is Grab or Grab, as Grab now is by far the dominant player in the market.

Although there are other e-hailing services in Malaysia, I’m not attracted to them as their apps are not sophisticated.

I miss the days when the choice was Uber (my first choice) or Grab.

The other day, I was in my office and it was peak hour. I wanted to go home in Subang Jaya. But no Grab driver accepted my ride request.

I was thinking, “If only there was Uber.”

I didn’t even consider a taxi as I hardly see one around Menara Star in Petaling Jaya. Plus, I no longer have the phone number of a taxi call centre.

The taxi drivers are becoming extinct. That is what I told a taxi driver who was dead set against e-hailing service.

“You can’t swim against the tsunami of technology,” I told the driver, who was from my village, Kampung Pogunon, in Penampang, Sabah.

It was about five years ago when we had dim sum in Jalan Ipoh in Kuala Lumpur. He told me how he hated Grab and Uber, which were taking away a chunk of his income.

The 50-something man told me that taxi drivers were organising protests against Uber and Grab. Some of the protesters even physically threatened Uber and Grab drivers who entered taxi mafia-controlled areas such as shopping malls or bus terminals.

I told him perhaps it would be better if he gave up paying taxi permit fees to the crony/rent seeker who owned hundreds of them. And he should buy a Proton or Perodua with the money he would have paid the rent seeker and be an Uber or Grab driver.

The nice taxi driver rejected my idea that day.

From what I know, he is no longer a taxi driver. Making a living driving a taxi is no longer sustainable.

Now, many prefer using Grab as the price is fixed. And it is less of a hassle than haggling with a “bad apple” taxi driver.