The Malaysian Insight

E-HAILING service Grab is at risk of losing a substantial number of its drivers if new compliance regulations imposed by the Pakatan Harapan government pose a financial burden to those working part time.

Several drivers that The Malaysian Insight spoke to agreed that the introduction of regulations like public service vehicle (PSV) licence, annual vehicle inspections at Puspakom and insurance coverage would only benefit those driving full time.

Alexander Leo Morris, who works as a Grab driver to supplement his salary working as an auditor, said the new rules would burden part-time drivers as it would eat into their already low earnings.

“Most of the part-timers only work for a couple of hours in a day. They already do not make that much. Maybe about RM500 to RM800 a month if they do it often,” Alexander told The Malaysian Insight.

“The total compliance cost for a year would run up to about thousands, people will be less interested in Grab because of this.”

He said the compliance costs have to be kept low to benefit all Grab drivers.

“Full-timers agree with these (regulations) as they are working on volume.

“For part-timers, it would be detrimental cause they only work for a couple of hours,” said the 27-year old.

E-hailing companies now need to register with the Companies Commission, or Cooperative Commission, and have vehicles older than three years inspected yearly under the new system.

Another part-time driver, who wanted to be known as Muhammad, said the inspection requirement was another unnecessary burden on drivers, who already have to bear full financial responsibility for their private vehicles.

Currently, more than 50% of Grab’s fleet is more than three years old.

Part-time driver Liew told The Malaysian Insight if the costs become too high, many part-timers would leave the service.

“If we cannot make enough money, why should we keep on doing this?

“This was a chance for us to make something extra on the side, but if this becomes troublesome, I would rather not drive,” the senior executive said when met at Bangsar.

A Grab company spokesmann declined to reveal the actual number of part-time drivers but said it numbered more than 80% of their “hundreds of thousands” of drivers.

Grab’s country head for Malaysia Sean Goh was reported as saying there has been a decline in drivers signing up because of the new regulations by the Transport Ministry.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced on Sunday that ride-hailing service Grab would be required to use vehicles approved by the government and pay for insurance and taxes, just like taxi companies.

The announcement came as a group of 10 taxi drivers shouted at Dr Mahathir at a dialogue in Langkawi to discuss concerns that e-hailing service Grab was taking away taxi drivers’ livelihoods.

The group walked out of the hall while Dr Mahathir was trying to explain to the constituents measures Putrajaya was taking to level the playing field for them.

Several Grab drivers expressed frustration at the taxi drivers’ demands, as consumers were the ones seeking an alternative for the poor service provided by taxis.

“Taxis were the ones who were dominating the economy before but they abused their powers like misusing the meter system and haggling with customers over the fare,” said Yaakob Ahmad, a full-time Grab driver for the past two years.

“That is why Malaysians sought out e-hailing services. Now they are complaining, this is unfair to us.” – October 23, 2018.