KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 ― The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said it will soon require ride-hailing operators to include an SOS button in their apps, after two robberies involving Uber drivers.

This order, SPAD chief executive Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said, would be made mandatory for another operator, Grab, as well.

“We had a meeting with senior Malaysian Uber officials to highlight the gravity of the situation. For a start, Uber has to expeditiously put in an SOS button which will be linked to law enforcement.

“We have also written to Grab and it too will be required to put this feature into its app,” he was quoted as saying in The Star.

Mohd Azharuddin, however, said there were no deadlines set for this and that the commission has yet to hold talks with the police on the matter.

Other initiatives drafted from the discussion included requiring e-hailing operators to provide information about their drivers to SPAD by this month, he said.

He said it was needed as Putrajaya attempts to regulate such services by amending the Land Public Transport Act 2010 in Parliament next month.

Presently, e-hailing operators claim that they perform checks on drivers before recruiting, but it is unknown how thorough the screenings are.

Screening by SPAD, the news report said, will crosscheck drivers’ records with various law enforcement agencies.

Besides these, the report said those who want to be drivers will now need to undergo psychometric tests to ensure that they are “suitable” for the job.

As for operators who fail to comply with these, it said, penalties will imposed on them.

Yesterday, Uber Malaysia general manager Leon Foong said his firm was aware and deeply concerned over the safety of its passengers as well as of the drivers and is committed to improving its blemished record.

Two separate incidents earlier this week have cast a shadow over Uber Malaysia’s services.

The most recent complaint against the company took place in Penang, in which a 42-year-old Vietnamese woman passenger claimed she was “ordered” to touch her Uber driver’s genitals after he flashed her during the ride on June 6.

The 29-year-old driver was assaulted with baseball bats the next day by the woman’s Malaysian husband and a group of men, believed in retaliation following her complaint.

Police have arrested the driver for alleged molest and the husband and another man for alleged rioting using weapons.

Another Uber driver in Selangor was arrested yesterday for investigation into the robbery of two teenagers, after he allegedly forcibly changed their destination and left them stranded in Kajang last Sunday.

Last month, a 26-year-old pregnant woman passenger claimed she was robbed at knifepoint by her Uber driver and a male accomplice during a night-time ride from Mid Valley Megamall to Puchong. She later miscarried.