Cabbies being fined for waiting by the roadside in Kajang

The Star, Saturday March 15, 2014

by christina tan AND beh yuen hui

Chew giving a copy of her manifesto to taxi driver A. Subramaniam, 48, after a dialogue session with chartered taxi drivers in Kajang. On the right is Hulu Langat-Kajang district Chartered Taxi Drivers and Owners' Welfare Association chairman Karnail Singh.

WITHOUT a proper taxi stand in Kajang town, taxi driver, who identified himself only as Ah Chunn, has to pay at least one summons a month for waiting at non-designated areas for passengers.

He said the authorities had ignored all his appeals to get the summonses cancelled. Each summons could be as much as RM150.

All taxi drivers in Kajang had endured the situation for over 10 years, said Ah Chunn.

“We (cab drivers) are already struggling to make ends meet and the summonses add to our financial burden.

“The enforcement officers will issue the summonses even when we are seated in our taxi,” he said, when telling StarMetro about the fate of taxi drivers in Kajang.

Their longstanding plight is aggravated by the increasing traffic congestion in the busy town.

Ah Chunn said he and his fellow drivers preferred to park and wait at a spot for passengers because driving non-stop around town aimlessly was too expensive with the escalating petrol price.

He urged the authorities to build a taxi stand in Jalan Ibrahim, located in the town’s busy commercial area.

Agreeing with the suggested site, taxi driver Md Seran Asan, 64, said it was near shops and next to the Metro Kajang shopping centre.

“It also connects to Jalan Semenyih, which is one of the main roads.

“As such, we can head towards any direction after picking up psssengers,” explained Md Seran, who has been driving a taxi in Kajang since 2004.

He lamented that currently he was forced to wait for customers by the roadside in front of a food court, risking getting fined by the police or the local council for traffic obstruction.

A. Dass, 63, who has been driving a taxi for over a decade, proposed that the taxi stand be located at the Plaza Metro Kajang in Jalan Sulaiman because the crowd there was larger.

He further suggested that the authorities convert one of the two motorcycle parking section in Jalan Sulaiman into a taxi stand.

On Wednesday, MCA vice-president Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun told taxi drivers that she would get the party’s think-tank, Insap (Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research) to conduct a study on the matter and find a solution to the taxi drivers’ plight.

Chew said this after having a dialogue with the Hulu Langat-Kajang District Chartered Taxi Owners’ and Drivers’ Welfare Association.

Association chairman Karnail Singh said they had made several appeals to Chew, who is contesting in the Kajang by-election on March 23.

The appeals included having a taxi stand at the KTM station and to allow the members to join Socso.

Karnail said they had also sought Chew’s help to change their taxi permit to that of Chartered Taxi, which is valid for 10 years, because their current permit was only valid for seven years.