Transport Authorities to nab down UBER Drivers using the app

Kuala Lumpur: It appears that the bad news for UBER Malaysia is not about to end soon. The Uber service is already banned in the country, and now the authorities are saying they will track down those using their vehicles for the service using the Uber app and strict actions will be followed.

The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) is coming down hard with a latest strategy to block down the renewal of Uber drivers’ road tax. SPAD has come up with a new way by using the mobile phone app to trace private car owners who use their vehicles for the service, TheSun reported.

According to TheSun, "For example, after a certain private car has been identified from the digital log in the Uber app alongside solid evidence of video and photo of their operations, the authority will then send out a notice to the car owner to attend an 'interview' with the SPAD enforcement division and they are also required to bring along the alleged cars for inspection."

Image Courtesy: Uber Supporter Malaysia

The report said the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) has come up with this new measure to apprehend private car owners who offered the taxi services, which is now considered as illegal in the country.

According to the sources, these may also be seized for violating Section 16 of the Land Public Transport Act 2010. If the car owner will ignore the first notice to attend an interview and bring the said car, then SPAD will issue one more notice before "utilising all available channels to locate the private vehicle".

This will not only applicable on UBER but GrabCar as well, as the source said, “This is due to the limitation in using the credit cards for Uber. Once a driver is nabbed, Uber will immediately blacklist the credit card of the passenger. This hampers our operations to nab more Uber drivers. But we will also apply this method for GrabCar soon.”

So far, "SPAD is using the same method that police employed to get traffic offenders to settle outstanding summonses," the source was quoted as saying.

A SPAD senior official confirmed that "we are using this method to weed out Uber drivers because of the limitation in using credit cards for the Uber service.”

SPAD has seized 145 private cars since October last year which includes 44 Uber and 97 GrabCar vehicles, for offering illegal taxi services.

Apart from the seizure of the car, the drivers guilty of unlicensed ferrying may also face fines of up to RM10,000 or a maximum of one year’s jail, or both and car companies could be fined up to RM100,000. – October 5, 2015, sources reported.