The Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) must act now to solve the conflict between taxi drivers and ride-sharing firms Uber and GrabCar before the hardship suffered by cabbies force them turn to crime, argues Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia (PPIM).

"With the unregulated (Uber and GrabCar), taxi drivers' income has been reduced. We fear that cabbies will be pressured. When under pressure, as we see today, their income has been reduced.

"Maybe they will be forced to steal and rob for lack of income," its president Nadzim Johan said in a press conference at the NGO's offices in Kuala Lumpur.

The troubles between the ride-sharing firms and cabbies came to a head recently leading to a series of street protests, the latest of which saw 300 taxi drivers going on strike, paralysing the traffic in Bukit Bintang last month.

Nadzim said that the taxi drivers of Malaysia can no longer “too long” waiting for Spad to study the matter while allowing it to drag without any action taken to provide a resolution to the ride-sharing firm's dispute with cabbies.

"This matter shouldn't have been allowed to go on without proper guidelines, I was told Spad will come out with guidelines.We want one or two formulas that will benefit all parties,"

“Spad should form a company so that cabbies have a share in it. This is our proposal. We don’t know what the commission will do after this,” he said.

The press conference was also joined by several taxi driver associations who are urging that Uber and GrabCar be banned.

Persatuan Teksi 1Malaysia deputy chairperson Kamarudin Mohd Husain said that government and related agencies should work to improve the lot of cabbies who had served the country well all this while.

“If Uber and GrabCar is good, the government should urge us to return our taxis and license us to use personal cars like Uber and GrabCar,” he concluded.