Taxi Drivers Complain That Allowing Gojek Into Malaysia Will Make Them Lose Income

It’s amazing that the government has agreed to implement new services in order to provide more job opportunities to the youth. However, it is important to note that there are concerns from various groups regarding the implementation.

The government recently made a decision to begin allowing a motorcycle taxi service, also known as Gojek, to operate in Malaysia. However, concerns have been raised that this implementation might jeopardise the income of taxi drivers, reported Astro Awani.

Source: star2

The president of Gabungan Pertubuhan Teksi, Kereta Sewa, Limosin dan Teksi Lapangan Terbang SeMalaysia (GTSM), Kamarudin Mohd Hussain said that the decision to implement Gojek in Malaysia should not have been taken without listening to taxi drivers’ opinions first.

“This decision will cause taxi drivers to lose their income and even worse, the safety of people will be in risk,” he said.

“We’re disappointed and upset because the e-hailing taxi issue is not even solved, now we have this motorcycle taxi service,” he added.

Source: bernama

“What would happen to the public transportation industry in this country?” he told Sinar Harian. Kamarudin explained that taxi drivers are not rejecting the advancement of technology. Furthermore, they think that the government should ensure that any new services introduced should follow the law and prioritise people’s safety.

“If the Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, can spend time to meet with other ministers to hear explanations about the motorcycle taxi service, then Dr Mahathir should be able to allocate some time to meet with us and hear our problems,” he concluded.

Taxi drivers have previously protested against e-hailing services such as Grab and MyCar. Several e-hailing drivers were violently assaulted and physically prevented from dropping off or picking up passengers before the government decided to implement the PSV licensing for e-hailing drivers.

We can only know the effectiveness of the service after it’s implemented. The pros and cons of it could be properly identified after we see the motorcycle taxi service in action.  Perhaps, we should give this new implementation the benefit of the doubt.

Also read: M’sian Cabinet Has Given Go-Jek The Green Light To Zoom Into M’sia In The Months To Come