Malaysian Government set to legalise Uber and Grab, albeit regulated



The Malaysian government looks set to legalise controversial ride-hailing apps Uber and Grab, as reported by The Sun. The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) proposed 11 motions to the Cabinet yesterday.

Among those 11 proposals, the Cabinet was keen on improving the existing Teksi 1Malaysia (TEKS1M) model, streamlining the budget cabs fleet and setting up a special fund for new taxi drivers. The Cabinet was also pleased with the initiative of issuing individual taxi permits to applicants with a good and clean background. Besides that, there will also be a new system for cab companies who are looking to improve their services. Full details of the taxi transformation regulations will be released next week.

Amendments to the new legalisation will take place at the next parliament sitting in November before the law gets enforced. It is said that, with the legalisation of ride-hailing services, around 150,000 new individual taxi permit holders consisting of Uber, Grab and conventional taxi drivers will co-exist in the market in the next three years.

Meanwhile, watch our videos of GC Mah during his “part time stint” as an Uber driver.