THE high cost of the new public service vehicle (PSV) licensing, which is a requirement for e-hailing drivers and companies from July 12, will force many drivers to quit their jobs and lose an additional source of income.

JomRides head of marketing Musfaizal Mustafa said once the new ruling comes into force, a driver will have to fork out at least RM700 to RM800 for the cost of the PSV licence, medical check-up, e-hailing insurance, permit and vehicle inspections by Puspakom.

Apart from the cost, all e-hailing drivers must take a six-hour PSV licence training course that costs RM200 under the new ruling.

Musfaizal said most of the company’s drivers have voiced their concerns about the new conditions and nearly half of the part-time drivers plan to quit.

About 75% of JomRides 25,000 drivers are part-timers, he said.

“There will be fewer drivers after July 12 but the demand from passengers will be the same.”

He said fares are subjected to demand, adding that JomRides doesn’t have plans to raise its fares yet.

All women’s e-hailing group Riding Pink’s senior project and operations manager Elina Ariffin said the extra costs involved in the PSV licence and training is unfair for its drivers who are mostly women from the Bottom 40 income group.

Riding Pink has seen an average of five to 10 drivers dropping out each day since the PSV licence registration window opened on April 1, she said.

“Because of the amount they need to pay, that is the reason drivers have been emailing to us saying that they want their accounts deactivated and credit refunded and what-not. So this is what we are going through right now.

“We have been receiving emails and calls to terminate their accounts. We ask them if there is any particular reason, they said it is because of the new regulations.”

Grab Drivers Malaysia Association president Arif Asyraf Ali agreed that the cost of the PSV licence has become an issue for part-time drivers, adding that about 50% of their drivers are expected to quit once the ruling comes into effect.

Guidelines not clear

Elina said there have been many meetings with the Road Transport Department (RTD) prior to the regulation coming into force, but guidelines on the PSV were only revealed last month.

Even then, the guidelines are not clear, she said.

“(The meetings were going on) since last year when they said we had to go through all this but every meeting that we went, we were not given the proper guidelines until the last meeting we had on March 4.”

But while some bemoan the more controlled e-hailing industry and gloomy outlook for part-time drivers, Daryl Chong, the president from the Malaysian E-hailing Drivers Association (Mehda), said the government’s new ruling would benefit the industry in the long run.

“Drivers quitting is inevitable,” Chong told The Malaysian Insight.

“(But) this RM800 should not be a deterrent to continue driving because in the long run, whatever they make is definitely more than that.”

Chong said the new policies would ensure that the e-hailing ecosystem is fairly regulated, so that there would be a fixed ceiling and floor price for fares, especially in the backdrop of a price war.

Having a price mechanism will not only protect e-hailing drivers but ensure that customers are not cheated.

The PSV regulation will also balance out the saturated e-hailing ecosystem, he said.

“If I am not mistaken the last I checked, we had about 165,000 drivers in the country as compared to taxi which was about 50,000.

“Prior to this, there were a lot of drivers complaining that it was so hard to get a booking.”

With the expected dropout of part-time drivers, those thinking of becoming full-time e-hailing drivers would be ensured of better prospects, he said.

Mehda, which has 2,000 members, and other e-hailing organisations should prepare and pre-equip their drivers for the new PSV regulations, Chong said.

The association has tied up with Institute Memandu Malayan Sdn Bhd, which will be offering PSV training packages for RM89 as opposed to the ceiling price of RM200, set by the government. – April 11, 2019.