Motorcycle ride-hailing in Malaysia not in the plans, says transport minister
While motorcycle ride-hailing has been very successful in some neighbouring countries, don’t expect a similar service to be introduced in Malaysia says Transport Minister, Anthony Loke. Currently there are no plans by the government to legalise it any time soon to protect the safety of riders and passengers in view of the high number of accident involving two-wheeled vehicles.
According to thesundaily report, which quoted the minister, “Of course the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), which is the responsible party for such things, would study the implementation of motorcycle ride-hailing, but for me personally, I am not ready to agree with this.”
Loke was answering a question by Khairy Jamaluddin in Dewan Rakyat whether there are plans to legalise motorcycle ride-sharing services such as offered by the highly successful Go-Jek in Indonesia. Recently in May, Go-Jek announced plans for its international expansion strategy involving USD500 million of investment into Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, and even Thailand.
"It was not easy to regulate the cars, what more if it involves motorcycles. But if there are any other more specific suggestions, we can review and study," he said, referring to new regulations that effect car ride-hailing services in Malaysia such as Grab.
There was a local company which had introduced a motorcycle ‘taxi service’ up to early 2017, but it was eventually banned for the same safety reasons. According to data by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) had from 2016, up to 62 per cent of the 7,152 victims killed on the roads involved motorcyclists and pillion riders. Also, motorcyclists have a 42.5 times higher chance of getting involved in a fatal accident compared to a bus user, and 16 times more likely than when using a car.
Additionally, Loke explained that the public can expect the RM100 public transportation pass to be introduced by early 2019, after a memorandum of its implementation is presented to the Cabinet in the near future. The monthly transportation pass is one of the incentives promised by the Pakatan Harapan election manifesto.
Apparently, the government needs more time to implement the monthly travel pass as they had limited knowledge of the financial implications and costs involved when the idea was first proposed.
