This week, there was yet another protest against GrabCar and Uber with over 100 taxi drivers up in arms. The unannounced protest caused chaos and paralysed the KL city centre for more than two hours.
PETALING JAYA: The Transport Ministry wants to help taxi drivers diversify their source of income and earn more by joining e-hailing services.
Its Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said that the ministry is encouraging taxi drivers to sign up for e-hailing services as a means of getting more passengers.
"We want an approach to help all, and these taxi drivers are the stakeholders. We want to encourage them to take up e-hailing so that they would have two sources of income," he said.
Loke noted that the first and main source of income would be from street hailing, where these taxi drivers would pick up passengers from locations and taxi stops and drive them to their destinations, while with the e-hailing app, they can pick passengers from a particular place based on online requests.
"What is important, the ministry would carry out programmes to help them shift to getting income from two sources," he said.
He also noted that this was an agenda under the APAD (Land Public Transport Agency), which is replacing the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).
Loke was speaking to reporters after the Government Agency Briefing with the Temiang District Village Community Management Council (MPKK) at Seremban Klana Resort on Sunday (Nov 18).
He also said the ministry welcomes any state government that wants to set up a state fund to assist these drivers.
Taxi driver groups have called out to Loke to meet with them so that they can voice their concerns.
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