Recently, a food delivery rider was spotted walking after his motorcycle was seized due to expired road tax and insurance. Following that, an influencer purchased a new motorcycle for him to help him continue with his deliveries.
But this opened up a bigger question, are our food delivery riders riding around without properly following transportation laws for the sake of making a living?
Minister of Communications and Digital, Fahmi Fadzil, took to his Twitter page to share his meeting with food delivery platforms to getting to the bottom of this issue but many are wondering, why is he doing this instead of the Transport Minister?
Fahmi Fadzil wrote, “We all know the case of the motorcycle of a foodpanda rider that was seized in Nilai recently, due to his road tax expiring and that the motorcycle didn’t have insurance.”
“Today (September 18), I met with food delivery platforms as well as representatives from JPJ, KKD (Ministry of Communications and Digital) and MDEC to understand how a rider can work without valid motorcycle road tax and insurance, until this incident can happen.”
He went on to share that there are close to 200,000 multi-platform riders in Malaysia, and that JPJ mentioned that out of 1,242 road accidents that have happened up until May 2022, 112 delivery riders have lost their lives.
“Therefore, aspects of road safety and legal compliance are very important. Thank you to the food delivery platforms for being willing to meet, and I welcome their enthusiasm to work on some solutions – including road tax expiration reminder notifications – so that riders can do their jobs more safely,”
“InsyaAllah, KKD through MDEC will continue to work with p-hailing platforms and gig economy sectors, in an effort to advance the digital economy in Malaysia,” he added.
While that effort is very much appreciated, many questioned why the Minister of Communications and Digital was involving himself in this as they believe it’s the Transport Minister’s job.
“This is MOT’s (Ministry of Transport’s) work, not yours.”
“Why not work together with the relevant Ministries? You can call JPJ but cannot call the Ministry of Transport?”
“I want to ask, is this issue under the Ministry of Communications and Digital? Or under the Ministry of Transport?”
“Greetings YB. Fahmi, my question is, why is this issue taken over by the Ministry under your care? Thank you.”
Well, Fahmi Fadzil has since answered that question.
“P-hailing is registered under MDEC, some have licenses with MCMC,” he said in a reply.
Well, as long as someone is doing the work, right?
What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
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