KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Accused of endangering both drivers and passengers in its ride-sharing service, GrabCar has come up with an insurance protection plan that covers the occupants in countries where it has a presence.

Its Malaysia country manager Jaygan Fu touted the company’s novel insurance scheme that protects both driver and rider up with a compensation payment of up to RM64,000 should a road accident happen during the journey.

“As an organisation with a social mission to provide safe, convenient and reliable transportation option while improving the livelihood of drivers in Malaysia, GrabCar drivers and passengers are covered by insurance.

“In fact, GrabCar has the first-of-its-kind largest (in terms of coverage) insurance policy in South-east Asia which covers both parties in the countries the service is available in,” he told Malay Mail Online in an email interview last week.

Applicable to all 28 cities in the six countries that Grab operates in, the group personal accident insurance policy covers any events such as accidental death, permanent dismemberment and bodily injuries in the event of accidents for drivers and passengers.

Fu, however, said each incident will be evaluated individually by the insurance providers.

Taxi firms and associations have constantly slammed GrabCar and Uber, another ride-sharing service, for not having insurance coverage for the people that chose to ride on these services.

They also claimed because the services were not registered with the transport ministry and Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), it would make it hard for the authorities to act on them should there be an accident or death.

The most recent allegation, different from the rests, came last week when Big Blue Taxi Services founder and adviser Datuk Shamsubahrin Ismail said GrabCar and Uber were running what he deemed to be a money-laundering scheme.

He pointed out that both Uber and GrabCar are currently not registered as public transport firms and as such cannot accept payments from passengers for the services they provide.

He added that the cash-to-driver system that both companies now use also puts drivers at risk should accidents happen.

In response, Fu said the main function of its application was to provide a match for the supply and demand for transportation options especially during peak period in high traffic areas.

“As such, GrabCar drivers are not recruited to collect any form of income on behalf of the company, however, fare collected by the drivers are for their service rendered to transport commuters to their desired location,” he said.

Fu said his organisation was an application-based firm and hence it was not necessary to be registered with the ministry or SPAD.

Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi reportedly said that his ministry was studying the viability to make it mandatory for Uber and Grabcar drivers to obtain the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence.

He also said last January that ride-sharing services would soon be required to purchase the same commercial insurance as regular taxis, but that this would only be implemented later in the year once SPAD obtains public feedback.

On December 30 last year, the group of taxi drivers filed a lawsuit against SPAD to force the authority to ban Uber and GrabCar.

Several taxi groups have accused SPAD of failing to act against the two ride-sharing services, which they insist have been operating illegally.

The acrimony has resulted in occasionally violent altercations involving irate taxi drivers and Uber and GrabCar drivers.

Uber and GrabCar are competing firms that operate ride-sharing services in which private vehicle owners may offer transport services for hire without the permits and licences needed to operate a commercial taxi.

The Transport Ministry was contacted for comment but did not respond at the time of writing.