Malaysia will increase the number of taxis in the
country in the coming months, an official said here on Tuesday.
Some 3,000 new budget taxi licenses would be granted in the months to come, although there are no complaints about insufficient taxi services received by Malaysian authorities thus far, said
Halimah Mohamed Sadique, chairman of Malaysia's Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board(CVLB).
Currently, there are about 31,000 budget taxis in Johor Bahru in southern Malaysia's Johor
State, the Klang Valley in the Selangor State and the Penang State, Halimah told Xinhua.
Besides budget taxis, CVLB also issues licenses for airport taxis, luxury taxis, rental cars,buses and lorries, Halimah said.
Halimah explained that the reason for passengers to find it difficult to board a taxi is because under CVLB regulations, taxis are not allowed to stop at one point to wait for customers.
Instead, they have to cruise around to look for passengers, added Halimah.
Halimah said the exceptional case would be waiting for passengers at designated areas in
front of big shopping malls or hotels.
However, Halimah said that Malaysia rendered call taxi services and passengers could always
book a taxi via phone calls.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul
Aziz said that 1,232 complaints about Malaysian taxi drivers were received between January and
November this year.
The authorities have taken action against 788 of these complaints,while 320 reports are under investigation, added Nazri.
Speaking at the memorandum signing ceremony between several taxi associations in Malaysia
and DRB-Hicom, one of Malaysia's car assemblers and distributors, Nazri said taxi services in
Malaysia are criticized hard by tourists.
In fact, poor taxi services in the country had become the No.1 complaint made by tourists in
Malaysia, said Nazri.
Nazri pointed out that Malaysian taxi drivers refused to pick up passengers due to congested traffic, or would ask for extra charge if they had to pass through jammed roads.
This was not right as the taxi fare schedules approved by the Malaysian government had
taken into account all aspects including losses incurred by taxi drivers due to heavy traffic,
added Nazri.
Nazri warned that licenses of those breaking the rules and regulations would be revoked.