TTF: Loke, the so-called plans by your ministry to replace feeder buses with e-hailing services at MRT stations is the least of our drivers’ problems.
On the 22nd of September 2017, your fellow comrade, Liew Chin Tong, wrote:
The DAP parliamentarians, especially Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming and myself, have been calling for:
A bill of rights for drivers
The amended act only recognises, registers and deals with e-hailing companies without dealing with the drivers. The drivers are supposed to be “self-governed” by giant corporations such as Uber and Grab while many taxi drivers fall prey to cronies who are given taxi permits in block.
A tribunal
A tribunal should be formed within the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) to handle the complaints of all taxi and e-hailing drivers. Currently, drivers have no avenue to resolve their disputes with the giant international corporations of Uber and Grab. My colleague Ong Kian Ming prepared a draft amendment bill which was rejected by the government.
A 15% cap on commission
Currently, Uber charges drivers 25% of fares as commission while Grab charges 20%. E-hailing drivers put in their time and personal vehicles and put their lives on the road for meagre incomes while technological providers Uber and Grab, which are international corporations, take huge cuts and repatriate their profits overseas. DAP has repeatedly called for the government to put a 15% cap on commission so that drivers earn slightly more from their hard work. This would also indirectly help the domestic economy.
Individual permits for taxi drivers
One of the major problems faced by taxi drivers is that they don’t get individual permits but have to rent them from cronies who get them in bulk. DAP has called for individual permits to be given in larger numbers, and on SPAD and the government to do more for the taxi sector and not treat it as a sunset industry.
These are among some of the proposals the DAP MPs have made inside and outside of Parliament during the debate on amendments to the Land Public Transport Act 2010.
Can you confirm if you have plans to heed these calls?
Please respond, Loke.
Remember, almost all of our taxi drivers voted for Pakatan on account of what guys like Chin Tong told them.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Transport Ministry has no plans to replace feeder buses with e-hailing services at MRT stations.
Minister Anthony Loke described the announcement to this effect made by the finance minister’s political secretary Tony Pua as his own personal view.
“As far as the ministry is concerned, we have no plans to scrap the feeder bus service right now,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here today.
Loke further said that the ministry was looking to integrate it with other bus services and hoped to roll out the monthly pass soon.
It was reported that taxi company operators had expressed unhappiness over Pua’s announcement that the government was in talks with e-hailing firm Grab to provide transport services for MRT commuters.
Source: NST Online
