Taxis in the Klang Valley will soon be equipped with a special satellite tracking system which will hopefully put an end to rude taxi drivers and endless time spent waiting for a taxi. How? Because the special tracking system will enable the authorities to monitor taxis and make it easier for passengers to lodge complaints. The GPS (Global Positioning System) technology will also help direct a taxi to a waiting customer.
This new system is known as the Centralised Taxi Service System (CTSS). The system is currently being developed and is expected to be released by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) in the Klang Valley sometime in the third quarter of 2014.
According to SPAD chief executive, Mohamad Nur Ismail Kamal, the system will likely enable customers to call just one number to get a taxi. The plan is to get the current taxi radio services to subscribe to SPAD’s system and for taxi drivers to subscribe to the radio services. The CTSS system will also be able to direct a taxi to a passenger closest to its location. This way, passenger will not have the hassle of calling numerous taxi companies looking for a cab.
SPAD will also fit a special panel at the back of the front seats of taxis to enable passengers to communicate with SPAD during the journey. Passengers can send complaints and rate the drivers on the spot. The ratings will hopefully inspire taxi drivers to be better because passenger can later on request for only four-star drivers and above to pick them up.
Why is this system being implemented now? According to Mohamad, the taxi industry was fragmented making it difficult for SPAD to keep an eye on all taxis in the Klang Valley and the whole country. There is an estimate of 60,000 taxis in the peninsula and about 37,000 taxis in the Klang Valley alone. The CTSS system will help keep an eye on taxi drivers especially when they refuse to go to certain areas in the Klang Valley requested for by the passengers.
“Right now, no one is monitoring what taxi drivers are doing. They could be sitting in Bukit Bintang for hours, chatting at a coffeeshop, playing checkers.”
“By having all these taxis linked to us, we can see where the cabbies are, and redistribute the numbers to cover where the demand is,” he said.
Once installed, the system will be able to tell SPAD the exact location of a taxi and if the driver had turned the meter off. Also, SPAD is looking into installing a panic button for passengers to use if they need help.
According to SPAD, the system will first be installed in the new Taxi 1Malaysia (Teksi 1M) models within the Klang Valley, and later on it will be installed in other models.
What do you think of this new system?
Story and quote from: The Star
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