KUCHING: The gathering and memorandum submission by some 200 taxi drivers at Old State Legislative Assembly (DUN) recently has become the concern of public transport users in Kuching.
Regarding that matter, New Sarawak Tribune has interviewed some public transport users on their opinions. Viviana Lenna Igai, 27, from Betong said it is the time for taxi drivers to use another initiative instead of remaining as a taxi drivers or cabbies.
“My opinion for the taxi drivers, if they think uber and grab are stealing their passengers, why don’t they try to switch to uber and grab themselves? Or if they think that their income as taxi drivers is not enough, why don’t they switch to being a lorry drivers who are better paid than taxi drivers “I was an uber driver for awhile last year and most of the passengers were more comfortable with uber and grab services as compared to taxi because it is cheaper and convenient.
“Taxi drivers should be planning on what to do next rather than just wasting their time to protest to the government,” she pointed out.
Meanwhile, she added that there are good news on the Taxi Industry Transformation Plan which stated it was under the Taxi Industry Transformation Plan unveiled last August.
“Taxi drivers exiting from rental-purchase contracts may apply for individual permits, and those successful ones would also receive a RM5,000 grant for the purchase of a new taxi, “On March 31, 300 taxi drivers received their individual permits and RM5,000 grant each, and the government had allocated a total of 30,000 taxi permits and RM150 million to be issued over the next five years.
“Therefore, I don’t think that the government just sits still with this kind of issue. If not, the taxi industry transformation plan wouldn’t even exist in the first place. I think it all depends on the taxi drivers to change their world around,” said Viviana who is a former Sales Executive in Advertising Company.
Jonathan Ding, 24, from Kuching who also expressed the same thought as Viviana said it is the time for taxi drivers to catch up the current trend and public demand especially on the prices.
“We do understand that the maintenance for taxi is much costly and the customers are decreasing, but today’s customers prefer the cheapest, easiest and convenient transportation. “We are living in the digital era, and definitely the customers prefer to use uber or grab which can pick them up at any location.
This is different with taxis that only have certain pit stops and customers need to make some effort to reach any taxi,” said Jonathan, who is attending a local university. “I think what the government can do is to transform this taxi industry into something similar with uber and grab, and reduce the fixed price for customers,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mohd Izwan Shaharuddin, 29, pointed out that the taxi issue with uber and grab is nothing new in any country.
“It was just happening recently in Kuching for the memorandum submission, but it already occurred in other places since the existing of uber and grab few years back. “Some measures have been taken. It is just a matter of taxi drivers either to accept or decline.
They can be an uber and grab driver, plus they need to understand and adapt to changes in the current era, “May be the taxi company can come out with other creative initiatives to gain back its customers, come into cooperation with other agencies or companies that relate to digital technology.
“There should be standardised prices for taxis, such as no minimal price for taxi users or others,” said Izwan, a lecturer at a local high learning institution.
