Costly rides out of Brickfields

Costly rides out of Brickfields

 LITTLE India in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur has now joined the list of black areas in the city where taxi drivers tend to overcharge or refuse to use meter.

Areas with high tourist concentration like KLCC, Petaling Street where Chinatown is located, and Bukit Bintang are some of the places where cabbies overcharge the passengers.

Rogue cab drivers park their vehicles on both sides of the road along Jalan Tun Sambanthan — opposite Public Bank and KL Sentral — waiting for customers.

Unscrupulous: The taxi drivers haggle with customers and state their amount without using meter.

These drivers can be seen sitting on the steel benches smoking away, while the leader of the pack will walk about approaching potential customers.

Members of the public who were cheated by these taxi drivers called StarMetro to highlight the problem.

 “I wanted to go to Dataran Merdeka, which is definitely less than RM5, but was quoted RM15,” said an irate caller.

“When I insisted they use the meter, they offered me a discount of RM3. I refused and told them that I would report them and one of the guys shouted profanities at me,” he said.

Irresponsible: Rogue taxi drivers parked themselves side by side at bus/ taxi lane waiting for their next victim A check by StarMetro revealed that the drivers were very lackadaisical about using the meter.

When asked the cost from Brickfields to Bangsar Shopping Centre, the taxi driver said RM15.

He went on to justify his claim by saying that someone needs to pay for his return journey as well as the traffic rush during lunch hours.

The taxi driver even went on to offer RM12 and flatly refused to use the meter because it would be a loss for him.

 “It is better if I just stay here and wait for a customer. I need to make money, otherwise if I go around I only waste fuel,” he said.

The irony of it all is that these daily occurrences are taking place even with the presence of officials from the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) who are stationed at 1Sentral, Brickfields.

In a recent incident, a driver of an executive taxi was fined RM1,000 by a magistrate’s court after pleading guilty to charging a British couple RM459.20 for a journey that was at most 4.8km or a 10-minute ride.

He was charged under Section 75 (1) of the Land Public Transport Act 2010 on April 26 for overcharging, an offence punishable with a jail term of up to three years or a maximum fine of RM50,000 or both. The driver was one of the first to be charged under the Act.

~News courtesy of The Star~