Taxis in Malaysia
Taxis in Malaysia
I was planning to write about Malaysian Taxi drivers or more correctly about Taxis in Malaysia since I came.
Next month will be our one year in Malaysia insh. It is really a great experience and pleasure to be in Malaysia. However, there is always negative side to anything. If anyone asks about the worst thing in Malaysia I would probably say ‘Taxis in Malaysia’. That is really a shame for this beautiful country and its beautiful people. It is definitely harming the image of Malaysia. If you intend to visit Malaysia you should be careful about taxis and taxi drivers in Malaysia.
Just before the eid, I had a visitor from Turkey. He has been charged 80 Malaysian Ringgits for his 2 km trip which will normally take only 3 Ringgits on taximeter. In many cases, they destroy the image of country for just a Ringgit or 50 cents. First of all, it is not passengers who decide where to go. Taxi drivers in Malaysia specially ask you where to go before getting in taxi. If they don’t like to go to that area they either want to charge you 5 to 10 times more or simply say NO. My precious colleague, wonderful friend, Prof. Azmi suggested me to jump directly into car without answering where to go, and if they choose not to go to that place I would tell them that I would report directly to the telephone number at the back of car. It worked several times. However, in 2 situations we had hot discussions in front of other people. First of all, it requires a kind of social responsibility. If things are left only to officials, solution will not be there. In one of the hot discussions, I was waiting in front of queue. He asked me where to go as usual. After telling destination, he tried to overcharge me. I told him just to turn on the meter. He refused and said ‘I am going to KL now’ which is probably unlikely for that destination. I turned onto people in the queue and told them story and said ‘please do not reward this kind of people by getting into his car’. Several persons in the queue did not get into car but 4th one in the queue accepted driver’s offer and went away.
Now I am lucky I don’t face taxi drivers any more since I bought my car and learnt how to use public transportation such as LRT, monorail more effectively. Sometimes if my destination is 1 km or something I just walk. But of course, we may be considered as Malaysian now. What about tourists and other people who come to visit Malaysia for short period? Taxis in Malaysia and attitude of Malaysian Taxi drivers are great problem destroying the image of this wonderful place.
Police department or other officials as alone cannot find a solution to this problem. It needs a systems engineering approach to problem and needs a kind of social responsibility and help from ordinary people.
