Ehailing players to face action over higher surcharge

PUTRAJAYA: Ehailing companies found to have charged passengers more than the allowed fare surcharge amount can be suspended or even have their licences revoked, says the Transport Ministry.

Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said complaints by commuters about exorbitant ehailing fares have triggered the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) to investigate the matter.

“We are investigating this matter to see if it is true that some ehailing companies have violated the allowed surcharge amount, which has been set at 200% of the base fare.

“If found to be true, we will not hesitate to take action on the operators. Their licences can be suspended or even revoked,” he told reporters yesterday.

Dr Wee said the 200% surcharge limit was a policy set by the Transport Ministry in 2019, before his tenure.

“This is a policy that we inherited from before. If you ask me whether the surcharge limit needs to be reviewed, that requires another process,” he said.

He said there were more than 25 registered ehailing operators, so passengers would have options.

Dr Wee lambasted a claim made by operators that the high demand causing a lack of available ehailing cars on the road was due to the recent Employees Provident Fund (EPF) special withdrawal scheme.

“They claimed that demand is high because people have just withdrawn RM10,000 from the EPF special scheme.

“This is an absurd claim,” he said.

Recently, the ministry and Apad met with ehailing operators to understand the cause of the surge in fares.