SPAD To Target Private Vehicle Owners Offering Uber Rides By Preventing Road Tax Renewal

The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) will utilise a new method to nab private car owners or drivers that offer illegal taxi services using the Uber app.

The Sun reports that this new method will not require the authorities to go undercover as potential “riders” as part of special operations to weed out any private vehicle owners offering Uber rides.

"For example, after a certain private car has been identified from the digital log in the Uber app alongside solid evidence of video and photo of their operations, the authority will then send out a notice to the car owner to attend an 'interview' with the SPAD enforcement division," a government source told the daily.

The reason behind using this specific method according to a senior SPAD official is: “This is due to the limitation in using the credit cards for Uber. Once a driver is nabbed, Uber will immediately blacklist the credit card of the passenger. This hampers our operations to nab more Uber drivers. But we will also apply this method for GrabCar soon.”

Car owners served with the notice, under the Section 225 of the Land Public Transport Act 2010, are required to assist in investigations of the alleged offence (offering illegal taxi services) under Section 16 of the Act. This will also require them to bring along the alleged cars for inspection, where they may be seized or confiscated for violation of the Act.

To strengthen the enforcement further, should the car owner snub the notice or does not bring the alleged car to the “interview”, another notice will be issued by SPAD and if there isn’t a response still, the commission will “utilise all available channels to locate the private vehicle”.

This includes working with Road Transport Department (JPJ) to blacklist the vehicle from renewing its road tax until the owner surrenders the vehicle. In short, “It is a matter of time before their cars are impounded,” said the government source. The method is similar to that used by the police to get traffic offenders to settle outstanding summonses.