Tomorrow, the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) will be holding a press conference to officially announce the Taxi Industry Transformation Programme (TITP) including the plan to legalise e-hailing services such as Grabcar and Uber.

This could not have come sooner, as many including myself have raised the conundrum both taxis and Uber/Grabcar drivers have faced in many statements since last year.

Many Malaysians welcome the good news that Uber and Grabcar will soon be given the permits to operate legally in Malaysia.

The erratic and unpredictable enforcement by Spad officers on Uber or Grabcar drivers can now stop for good, with focus given to best quality and options for the consumer.

Spad must ensure that in the move to level the playing field between taxi drivers and Uber/Grab drivers, unnecessary red tape must be avoided for the ultimate benefit of the consumer.

Among the extra regulating burden imposed on taxi drivers presently is:

1) Need to possess a public service vehicle licence (PSV).

2) Need to undergo periodic vehicle inspection at Puspakom.

3) Need for commercial insurance for the vehicle (which can cost four times more than ordinary car insurance).

These extra “burdens” imposed on taxis are now questionable, where most Malaysians feel that Uber and Grabcar services are largely more comfortable and more reliable than most (if not all) taxi rides.

The internal driver monitoring and evaluation systems employed by Uber and Grabcar has clearly worked better in ensuring these results as compared to the above-mentioned red tape imposed by Spad on the taxi drivers.

Thus, Spad should be careful in announcing any further burden on Uber and Grabcar tomorrow.

Proposed name changes as reported in some newspapers are absolutely unnecessary.

There should also be caution at anything that would require additional fees, as ultimately, the consumer would be paying for it in higher fares or disrupted services.

Hopefully, the announcement tomorrow would hail a new era of taxi services for Malaysia, that would benefit the consumer and would encourage a higher usage of public transportation.

R RAJIV is the state assemblyperson for Bukit Gasing.