Ride-sharing essentially still an illegal taxi service, says state’s CVLB

Be open: The European Commission has cautioned member states against outright bans on the sharing economy.

KOTA KINABALU: Barely a month after its launch here, Uber has been banned, at least for now, by the Sabah Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (CVLB).

Sabah CVLB chairman Datuk Raime Unggi said that the CVLB was of the view that Uber was nothing more than a mobile application-based “pirate” cab service.

“We want to treat everyone fairly including existing taxi drivers,” he said.

“And just like conventional un­­­registered taxi services, they are illegal,” he told reporters on Friday.

Raime said the Sabah CLVB would look at regulating the services so that participating drivers could offer the rides legally.

Uber, he said, just started in Kota Kinabalu last month but taxi drivers in the city were already threatened by the ride-sharing service.

He said representatives of the Kota Kinabalu Taxi Operators Asso­cia­­­tion had met him and voiced their objections to Uber services here.

Raime said that taxi operators had asked the authorities to consider blocking Uber’s smartphone application as a way of stopping the services.

However, he said CVLB was aware of the need to improve public transport services in Sabah.

Any changes would have to come after a study by the Land and Public Transport Commission (SPAD) on Uber and other ride-sharing services.