MALAYSIAN CABS AS WE KNOW.

Malaysian cabs or taxi were ranked among the top-worst cab system in the world because of the drivers bad conducts. There are a lot of complaints against the taxi drivers made by tourist and locals and it still rising in numbers till now. The Government establishes Public and Land Transport Commission (SPAD) on 3^rd June 2010 to improve public transport and made travelling easier while encourages Malaysian, especially those who lives in Kuala Lumpur to use public transport.

            What makes Malaysian cabs to rank so worst? The very first and big issue is they are refusing to use meter even labelled as “Metered Taxi and Haggling Is Prohibited” on the taxi. The taxi driver fixes the rates themselves according to the customer, place and time. For example, if they pick a customer from/to a five star ranked hotel, surely the rates will be higher. Same goes for a foreigners and rich-looking peoples compared to locals and ordinary looking peoples.

            The main reason for them to refuse to use meter to earn more money because they need to pay rent for the car, maintenance fees are keep rising, high inflation rate, rise in fuel price and so on. Another problem is although the driver owns the taxi, but they still need to apply permit for the taxi under any big company or dealer. There are dozens of taxi drivers faces this problem. I was informed by a taxi owner that the its too hard to get permit for the taxis because the applications refused for many times with and without reasons.

            On the other hand, they often behave rude to the customers and other route users. My friend’s father from Penang experiences a bad nightmare with the taxi drivers recently. He took a Cab in rain at downtown Kuala Lumpur in peak hours, later he was asked to get down at the middle of route due to extreme traffic congestion with a reason to find other passengers and didn’t wants to waste time at the traffic. Soon he gets another taxi, this time faces the same problem where the driver says you can walk to your destination from this point and it’s not far away. Hence he also starts to in heavy rain for around 10 minutes to reach his destination.

            On my personal experience, there are many types of taxi drivers whom behave according to the situation. Some behave very friendly, some very rude, some very silent, some bullies you, and some just listens to radio. The reason might be tiredness, stress, tension and personal problems. For example, for us to drive to work and drove back home after home in high traffic is big challenge every day, while they are on route from morning until late night almost every day.

            Therefore, they must be in great tension to handle with various passengers which behaves very differently. To avoid the problems, all the taxi users should be unite to use only metered taxi with fair rate. The fair rate for budget/ordinary taxi at Peninsular Malaysia is RM3 for first kilometer and RM0.10 for every 115 meter while at Penang is RM4 for first kilometer and RM0.10 for following every 115 meters (SPAD). There is no charge for all kinds of carriers/luggage in hand or boot, 50% additional charge from 12 am till 6 am, all the toll payments must be paid by passenger, RM2 additional for phone bookings, additional RM12 for KLIA, LCCT and Senai Airport and additional RM7 for Bayan Lepas Airport.

            Be informed and act smart to avoid been cheated and pay more for your journey. If every passenger uses the metered taxi for fair rate only, the taxi drivers have no way to cheat passengers but have to accept the fact that passengers are aware of what is happening around them.