Nancy: E-hailing regulations necessary for safety of drivers, passengers

KUALA LUMPUR: The same regulations imposed on conventional taxi drivers and e-hailing service providers are aimed at ensuring the safety of the passengers, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
She said there was no issue that the e-hailing taxi drivers should be exempted from the regulations on the grounds that they offered cheaper fares.
"The regulations imposed on conventional taxi drivers also apply on e-hailing drivers as this involves security issues," she said when winding up the debate on the Land Public Transport (Amendment) Bill 2017 in the Dewan Negara here today.
On July 27, the Dewan Rakyat passed the bill which empowered the government to regulate the e-hailing service operators such as Uber and Grab.
Under the law, e-hailing drivers are required to go through health checks, periodic inspection of their vehicles and display security cards of the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) , which are similar requirements imposed on conventional taxi drivers.

Nancy said in order to ensure conventional taxi drivers could compete with e-hailing drivers, the government would also give flexibility to them to choose their own vehicles under the Taxi Industry Transformation Programme (TITP).
She said under the TITP, new individual taxi permit would be issued when the lease period expired and a grant aid would be given to buy a new taxi.
To date, 600 taxi drivers have been granted individual taxi permits, she said.
The bill was later passed.
Also passed was the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (Amendment) Bill 2017. — Bernama