MOST Malaysian taxi drivers are a recalcitrant lot. No amount of advice or counselling works. They have been wrong so long that they think they are right. The chaotic meeting of the taxi drivers’ association members on Sunday with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Langkawi is instructive.
Some 10 taxi drivers turned abusive and walked out of the room after the prime minister said he would continue to find the best solution for Grab and taxi drivers. Is it any surprise that British site LondonCabs.co.uk voted Malaysian taxi drivers to be the worst in the world in May 2016.
Two years on nothing much has changed. If they can be offensive to the prime minister, one can imagine what they will do to their passengers. It is not uncommon for them to fleece passengers either.
A news portal reported that Lanang MP Alice Lau from Sarawak paid RM79 for a 4.65km trip from Parliament to Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur when it should have just cost RM20. Every other passenger will share a similar taxi story. They will neither let others help them nor help themselves.
It is true that the income of the taxi drivers has been disrupted by e-hailing services, but instead of improving their services they blame everybody else.
Sadly, the taxi drivers still live in the 20th century brick-and-mortar world which welcomes little to no competition.
It is a “taxi-driver-takes-all” world. Customer service is non-existent. The sooner they realise that the brick-and-mortar world is a thing of the past the better.
Of course, it is not easy for everyone to make the transition to the disruptive digital world. But taxi drivers do have an option. An in-between world where a taxi driver can choose to use the meter or switch to the e-hailing apps.
But even this best of the two worlds isn’t enough. Here, too, insolence has followed many of them. Such taxi drivers must remember that e-hailing passengers have access to their ratings and the choice to decline is only a click away.
No amount of howling against e-hailing will help. The best way out for them is in. Taxi drivers must engage in some honest introspection. They must accept the fact that they are in the service industry where customers are the king.
Passengers do not demand much either. All they want is good service and a pleasant ride for a reasonable price.
Taxi drivers must realise that in a world where there is competition customers have the option to choose. The taxi-only world has long disappeared.
No amount of threats and insolent behaviour will change that. We live in a digital world where disruption is the norm.
The world has moved forward. So must the taxi drivers. Otherwise, they will be left behind.
But if the taxi drivers have made the choice to stay behind, they cannot then complain about others who have made the choice to move forward.