Two taxi drivers associations have handed over a memorandum to the Federal Territory Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today, demanding an investigation into the Land Transport Development Authority (Spad) and applications company Uber.

They claim is that Uber is operating taxies illegally and that this is affecting their income.

The deputy chairperson of taxi association Pers1M, Kamaruddin M Hussain, questioned why Spad had taken action on taxi drivers and not Uber.

He further questioned who were the people behind Uber, whereby the authorities namely Spad seemingly did not dare to take action on them.

“The government issues the taxi licences to us which we paid for, but in turn what we find now is that Uber taxies, which are unlicensed, are on the road and taking passengers away from us. Who are the VVIPs behind Uber where the authorities dare not take action?

“Uber’s presence is affecting our livelihood and income and hence, we handed over the memorandum to the MACC wanting their intervention to investigate,” he said.

Kamaruddin said he had brought up Uber matter with Spad chairperson Syed Hamid Albar, and his reply was that it was an illegal entity and asked the drivers to hold a protest over it.

Another taxi organisation, Perbadanan Bertindak Teksi Malaysia Amran Jan, said Syed Hamid was being irresponsible as why should the cabbies protest as it is Spad which should take action on Uber.

“If he cannot take action, then Syed Hamid should resign from Spad,” he said.

About 20 taxi drivers came to the FT MACC office to hand over the memorandum for the authorities to investigate.

Amran claimed that the authorities have been taking action on normal taxi drivers but not Uber, where they have been subjected to fines and some had been imprisoned.

He further questioned whether public transport licences had been issued to them by the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board, and whether their presence would affect the safety of the passengers.

“For this reason, we want the authorities to investigate. All of us are apolitical but want the authorities, namely the MACC, to investigate what is happening inside Spad and with regard to Uber,” he said.

The taxi drivers submitted the memorandum this afternoon.