It’s only been a little over a day, but already Malaysians are letting the Federal Government know pretty clearly: we’d rather use ridesharing apps like Uber and GrabCar than hail a regular old taxi cab.
That’s the general consensus so far from the online survey put out by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), entitled General Perception: Taxi Service in Malaysia.
So far, 9,026 respondents have already filled out the poll, and the results are very telling.
Harian Metro‘s Rizanizam Abdul Hamid reports that 76.4% of respondents, or 6,791 Malaysians, say they would be more comfortable using services like Uber or GrabCar as a means of public transportation than traditional taxi cabs.
The main reason for the switch to ridesharing apps seems to be that taxi cab services in Malaysia simply provide lousy service overall.
In fact, taxi concessionaires are seen to be downright criminal: 86.6% of the respondents (7,728 people) claim that traditional taxis overcharge or go off the meter when tallying up their fares.
A SPAD statement further breaks down the list of Malaysians’ complaints towards cabs in the country: 6,016 respondents are unhappy with the general attitude of cab drivers; 3,832 complained about hygiene in cabs, 3,563 are unhappy with comfort; 3,128 note the lack of availability of cabs in their area; 2,126 claim cabbies have poor knowledge of routes and locations; 1,774 complained of cabbies’ appearance; 1,635 cited cabbies’ tardiness; and 1,068 complained of cabbies’ general lack of helpfulness.
On the flipside, 5,459 respondents said they prefer Uber or Grabcar because they deemed the app-based services trustworthy; easier to access (5,290); affordable (5,059); comfortable (4,218); and safer than other alternatives (3,944).
SPAD will have a tough time telling all this to the cab drivers who marched to Parliament last week demanding Uber and GrabCar be shut down completely. Everyone knows haggling with a cab driver is next to impossible.
