KUALA LUMPUR: Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman Syed Hamid Albar should resign for failing to revamp the current taxi system nationwide, said a taxi service provider company.
According to Premium Big Blue Taxi Service founder and advisor Shamsubahrin Ismail, Syed Hamid was only interested in visiting the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) sites rather than focusing on transforming the taxi system in the country.
“He talks a lot about transformation but he has only introduced the 1Malaysia Taxi program using the Gold Proton Exora.
“But a few trips to Genting (Highlands), the car breaks down and it takes a lot to fix it,” Shamsubahrin said in a press conference at his office here today.
According to Shamsubahrin, not all national cars were suitable to be used as taxis.
“When we say that the Exora is not suitable to be used as taxis, they condemn us and say that we do not support national products,” he said.
Upgrade permits
Shamsubahrin suggested that more promotions be carried out by SPAD to promote the usage of metered taxis.
“SPAD should focus more on promoting and educating the rakyat and tourists to use metered taxi in airports.
“Since SPAD have so many officers, they should organise more enforcement operations against taxi drivers who refuse to use meters. Don’t just patrol an area for five minutes, then leave and say they are done for the day,” he stressed.
He suggested that SPAD upgraded all budget taxi permits to premium permits to help boost income for the taxi drivers.
“They should also stop producing permits for budget taxis and upgrade the budget taxi permits to premium permits,” he said, adding that the Proton Inspira should be used as premium taxis.
“Inspira is one of the best cars produced by Proton apart from Wira as it does not use much petrol.
“Executives also would prefer to use the Inspira taxis rather than the current budget taxis,” he added.
Territorial taxi plight claims
Shamsubahrin also denied any territorial monopolies by taxi companies in Kuala Lumpur as reported by the media on Feb 16.
He said that his company had signed an agreement with the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) administration to provide metered taxi services at the premises.
“We have a system called Taxi Management System where drivers need to register with us and (they) pay RM200 for executive taxis and RM60 for budget taxis monthly.
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We do not keep the money in our coffers but we hire a security company to guard the area and to protect not only passengers but the taxi drivers too,” he said.
According to him, between 18 to 32 personnel are stationed at KLCC from time to time to guard the area.
“If a passenger decides to use a budget taxi, we will not hesitate to direct them to any taxi who drops off their passenger in the KLCC compound, provided the taxi uses the meter,” he said.
He added that by using this system, passengers are required to purchase a RM2 ticket where all the relevant information of his companies are printed and the taxi registration numbers are recorded.
“If passengers drop or leave anything in the taxi, we can track down the driver and ask him to look for the passenger’s lost item so that we can return it back to the passenger,” he explained.
According to Shamsubahrin, 95% of the customers were happy with the system.
“If any passenger insists that they don’t want a metered taxi, we advise them to use (hail a) taxi from outside the KLCC compound,” he said.
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