Shamsuddin (second left) and association members showing the correspondence they made with the State Government and CVLB Sabah with regards to the e-hailing issue.
KOTA KINABALU (Jan 18): The KKIA Limousine and Taxi Association has called for the resignation of Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) Sabah chairman Datuk Chin Kim Hiung.
This is because they claimed that Chin had failed to address issues affecting them, especially with regards to banning private e-hailing operators from operating at the airport.
The association’s president Shamsuddin Mohd Shah when speaking to reporters on Tuesday, expressed their disappointment with CVLB Sabah and Chin for failing to implement the decision made with regards to e-hailing operators.
“In 2018, a decision was made to ban e-hailing service drivers from waiting for passengers at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA). But up to now this decision has yet to be enforced,” he said.
Shamsuddin said that e-hailing service operators are now waiting for passengers at the airport and claimed that they are parked in front of the airport taxis.
“This is just one of the issues that was not looked into, the other was the geo-fencing which CVLB Sabah decided to implement but was never done. To our observation CVLB Sabah through Datuk Chin is not helping us at all.
“We deal with Datuk Chin all the time and he made promise after promise to help us. He also said that he will discuss the matter with the CVLB Sabah director but nothing came to fruition… we feel like we have been taken for a ride,” Shamsuddin lamented.
He claimed that Chin, instead of assisting them, had instead submitted an application letter to allow e-hailing service providers to park their vehicles in the airport terminal.
“This shows that he is not concerned about the airport taxi drivers. Our income was severely affected by the closing of the state’s borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic, then we had to compete with e-hailing service providers and now he had applied for permission to allow them to park at the airport terminal?
“He (Chin) has failed in his responsibility and we call for his resignation,” said Shamsuddin.
Shamsuddin also said that the KKIA Limousine and Taxi Association does not support the request for city taxis to be allowed to operate at the airport.
“We strongly object to this request… there are already 180 airport taxis operating from the airport terminal and we already face stiff competition from e-hailing operators, now you want to allow city taxis to come in too?
“How are we to survive if that were to happen?” he lamented.
Shamsuddin further claimed that CVLB Sabah’s decision for the association to work with e-hailing operator Grab on geo fencing was also not implemented.
The association, he said, is willing to work with any e-hailing operator as long as geo fencing and other decisions made by CVLB Sabah are adhered to.
He also lamented the fact that Malaysia Airports had asked them to vacate their base located just outside the terminal.
“We have been asked to use a hut at the parking lot. This hut has no facilities like toilets, proper seating and other amenities. We are paying Malaysia Airports to operate here, we even have to pay for the toilets but we have been asked to relocate our base to the hut,” he said.
It is their hope, Shamsuddin said, that CVLB Sabah will implement decisions it made with regards to the e-hailing service operators at the airport made in 2018.
The agreement that e-hailing service drivers were no longer allowed to wait for passengers at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) was made after a meeting between Malaysia Airports, CVLB, Road Transport Department (JPJ) and Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) Taxi Association in conjunction with the implementation of geo fencing.
With the implementation of the ban, a dedicated waiting area had been designated for e-hailing drivers at KKIA Terminal 2, and LPKP registered e-hailing service drivers can pick up passengers in front of KKIA Domestic Sabah Arrival area near gate number five and do drop-offs at the end of the terminal on the airport departure level.