Anthony Loke, Malaysia’s Transport Minister, recently said that there the government currently has no plans to regulate the fares of ride-sharing service. Instead, Loke says that his ministry will look into the development of e-hailing regulations undertaken by other countries.
Loke’s statement comes just as a previous report indicated that the costs of hailing down a ride-sharing driver are likely to increase after 12 July. Mainly because services such as Grab are expected to lose as many as 50% of its drivers that still haven’t obtained their Personal Service Vehicle (PSV) license.
Loke also explains that the reason no such regulation is in place yet is that there are no “hard and fast rules” where regulations are concerned. For now, Loke says that his ministry was working with existing e-hailing operators to ensure that their passenger fares won’t skyrocket to exorbitant rates.
That said, bodies such as the malaysian E-hailing Driving Association (MeHDA) have said that because of the dropout rate in drivers, fares could increase by as much as 50% of what it rides currently costs, and passengers could also see longer wait times for a ride.
(Source: The Star)
