The Malay Mail Online – 4 hours agoRELATED CONTENT
- Uber regional general manager Mike Brown says the company offers Malaysian taxi drivers …
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 ― Unfazed by claims it is luring away customers with its cheaper but illegal car-sharing services, Uber is instead offering Malaysian taxi drivers the chance to make more money by signing up with its booking scheme.
In response to accusations that it is undercutting cabbies here, the popular private car company's regional general manager Mike Brown said “Uber provides drivers with the best opportunity to make more money”.
“We encourage Malaysian taxi drivers to experience the same advantage and earn a better living by becoming a driver partner with Uber and providing Malaysians with a higher quality transportation service,” Brown said in an email interview withMalay Mail Online last night.
Taxi drivers have complained that they are puzzled at how Uber’s private car drivers under the UberX scheme could offer far lower rates than usual, also saying that they were losing customers because of the price difference offered by the allegedly unregulated competitors.
Uber offers two options — with taxis and limousines under its UberBlack category charging similar base fares and a slightly higher per kilometre charge than budget taxis, while its UberX category offers low-cost services that reportedly use private and “Hire & Drive” vehicles.
Barely a year-old in Malaysia, the US-based company has already encountered a regulatory roadblock, with its UberX service allegedly flouting local laws and expected to be struck with a joint crackdown by the Road Transport Department (RTD) and the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) from today onwards.
The company was told by SPAD in August to stop offering taxi services using private and “Hire & Drive” vehicles — with the latter only meant for car rentals by tourists — and only use properly-licensed vehicles and drivers.
According to SPAD, Uber drivers who do not have a Public Service Vehicle driving licence and its use of private vehicles to carry fare-paying passengers are both illegal actions, with such actions in breach of the Road Transport Act 1987 and the Land Public Transport Act 2010 respectively.
Some of Uber’s vehicles are also not covered with commercial vehicle insurance, SPAD said this August.
Earlier last week, RTD director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad reportedly said individuals or companies providing the “teksi sapu” (illegal taxi) services using private cars risked having their vehicles impounded or receiving a fine of between RM1,000 and RM10,000 or one year in jail.
While Ismail said the act of using private vehicles to transport fare-paying passengers was an offence under Section 16 of the Land Public Transport Act 2010, the crackdown and ban does not include the taxis and limousines that Uber is using.
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