KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 ― A group of taxi drivers seeking court action against ride-sharing operators said today that instead of considering ways to legalise Uber and GrabCar services, Putrajaya should take firm action and declare them illegal.
The Klang Valley Taxi Drivers Action Committee said it was “wrong” of the government to offer commercial driving licences (PSV) to Uber and GrabCar drivers, when they have been allowed to operate freely without them.
“The government said they will review Uber, we do not want to hear that. If they are legal or illegal, say it. Halal or not halal, say it,” the committee’s president Zailani Isa Usuluddin told a press conference outside the Kuala Lumpur High Court here.
“Do not say you will give them licence, this is wrong. Do not fool us! We are directing this message to Aziz Kaprawi.”
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi last week said that his ministry was studying the viability to make mandatory of Uber and Grabcar drivers to obtain the PSV licence.
In court this morning, lawyer R. Kengadharan, who is representing the group of 102 taxi drivers in their lawsuit against the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), said an objection was raised against Uber’s bid to apply as interveners in the case.
“We are resisting this application and we are saying that Uber is not regulated, not approved or properly licensed,” Kengadharan said.
High Court judge Justice Nor Bee Ariffin set May 31 to hear the intervener application as well as the case management for the lawsuit.
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.
