The Taxi Service Review: Malaysia Context

Abstract

In the majority city around the globe, taxis are an important element in mobility, which plays a significant role in transportation network. Surprisingly, this transportation mode carries no less than 40% passengers, more than all other major public transportation such as busses and trains (Adrian T. Moore, 2008). There is consideration made by some public transportation analyst saying that using taxi service usually cost more than other public transportation mode, therefore, taxis should offer something that other public transportation means do not have (Salanova, Estrada, Aifadopoulou, & Mitsakis, 2011). In circumstantial cases, taxi services are considered to be important towards certain articulation of the citizenry, such as the disabled, seniors, housewives, and the poor because they have much higher share of taxi trips than their percentage in the population (Moore & Balaker, 2006). Nowadays, the majority of the cities around the world have regulated their taxi services such as controlling taxi entry into the market and implementing a fixed fare (Shaw, Gilbert, Bishop, & Pruitt, 1983). Furthermore, in some major countries like UK’s and US, they also set the requirements for taxi drivers, types of vehicles, finances and controlling the operations. But prior to implementing regulated taxi services, there are lots of research conducted regarding the taxi market regulation which has been done by multi agencies and other public transportation experts (Moore & Balaker, 2006). This paper aim to review the Malaysian taxi services scenario. This paper also supported by the survey to see the congruity between the literature and outcome of the survey prior to the current situation of taxi services in Malaysia.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4p559