Traffic summonses: Taxi firms should settle fines

NST,Friday, December 10, 2010 

It is the norm for taxi companies to collect a deposit of a few thousand ringgit from the drivers before they are allowed to take delivery of a new or used taxi on a rental purchase basis. 

Upon expiry of the contract, the driver has several options. 

He can continue to operate the same vehicle as a taxi by renting the permit from the company or use his own permit if he can obtain one. 

Or he can sell the taxi to the company or convert it into a private car after paying off some excise duty. In any case, the taxi company will retain around RM600 of the deposit for a year to pay summonses. 

A few days ago, I gave my name and identity card number at a Post Office to check whether there were any summonses in my name. 

To my dismay, I found that there were four speeding summonses issued in 2005 for a premier taxi that I used to drive from 2002 and which I had returned to the company in March 2004. 

A staff of the taxi company had either intentionally, or erroneously, forwarded my name to the police. 

I then drove a budget taxi for six years with the same taxi company, from August 2004 to July 2010. 

At no time was I notified of the four speeding summonses issued for the premier taxi in 2005. 

It has been reported that 650,000 motorists are on the police blacklist. I have innocently become part of the statistics. 

As such, I urge the authorities to make taxi companies liable to pay off ‘saman ekor’ – summonses sent by post - instead of merely providing the driver’s particulars as required in the notification sent out by the police 

The company is still retaining RM600 of the deposit paid for the budget taxi to settle summonses. 

Will it pay or will it once again forward my particulars to the police? 

So if I get a knock on the door at night in a police operation out to nab blacklisted motorists, will I be able to sue the taxi company successfully for compensation? 

I would prefer the authorities to act on my recommendation and that is, the onus should be on the taxi companies to settle ‘saman ekor’ as they have collected deposits for it. 

YS Chan 

Kuala Lumpur