New taxis will not solve old problems

TS,Friday May 21, 2010


The Star recently reported that 3,000 taxi drivers in the Klang Valley received offer letters for taxi permits to be used for the Proton Exora model that will be known as 1Malaysia taxis.
These drivers will be given incentives such as sales tax exemption (taxis are already exempted from excise duties), subsidy for the installation of NGV kit and up to 90% financing.
No doubt, these grateful drivers will soon be running their new 1Malaysia taxis with great pride and high hopes.
However, their joy may be short-lived if the current state of executive taxis is a good indication.
When executive taxis were introduced several years ago with meter rates thrice that of budget taxis, many drivers applied for their permits.
However, to their consternation, they found there are too few passengers willing to use their expensive executive taxis.
With little success in picking passengers off the streets, these drivers are forced to queue at major hotels for long hours waiting indefinitely, many of them by the roadside under the hot sun or heavy rain and getting an occasional summon for illegal parking or traffic obstruction.
To the chagrin of those who bought high cost executive-sized sedans, newer operators are allowed to use cheap vans as executive taxis.
In fact, these vans are even cheaper than the Proton Exora but their meter rates are much higher.
As such, the 1Malaysia taxi drivers will be induced to charge executive taxi rates as their Proton Exoras are more comfortable than the bumpy vans fitted with leaf springs.
We will then be back to square one with drivers either fixing the fares or have the taximeters recalibrated to register higher fares in between vehicle inspections at Puspakom.
If not, it can be very frustrating for the 1Malaysia taxi drivers to charge the same rates as 10-year-old Proton Sagas which cost only half the price of a Proton Exora.
The ever-increasing number of taxis on the road further compounds the problem while the number of passengers has kept decreasing over the years.
Drivers can easily fall behind in payments to the bank for the loans to buy Proton Exoras and they are likely to resort to their old antics, especially with Ah Longs breathing down their necks.
As such, the CVLB should make it a requirement for the 3,000 taxi drivers who were offered such permits to undergo training courses or at least some counselling initially and later attend annual briefing and dialogue sessions.
The same old problems afflicting our taxi services should not be allowed to perpetuate.
The 1Malaysia branding and higher-grade vehicles alone will not be enough to turn the tide.
Even a state-of-the-art surveillance system fitted to all taxis will not ensure that drivers will not fleece their passengers.
In New York, about 44% of cab drivers overcharged their passengers by manually setting their meters at a higher rate than allowed.
In Malaysia, the pendulum has swung from granting thousands of permits to taxi companies to giving to taxi drivers directly.
Either way does not address the major problems such as refusing to use meters or tampering with the meters and choosing passengers or destinations.
To transform our taxi services, new drivers must be properly trained, supported and then closely monitored.

YS Chan
Kuala Lumpur