Cabinet To Revise 3 Acts To Let Transport Ministry & Agencies Regulate Food Delivery Services

By Lara Kramer  •  09 Aug 2022 in News

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The Cabinet has concurred to modify three Acts to offer the Transport Ministry and its agencies authority over food delivery services, with the bills anticipated to be introduced in Parliament during the October session, according to Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong.

Among them are the Road Transport Act of 1987, the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act of 1987, and the Land Public Transport Act of 2010.

As per Wee, the changes are “for the purposes of guidance and establishing regulations.”

He continued by asserting that the changes will also make it a requirement for p-hailing drivers to acquire a Goods Driving Licence.

“Aside from that, p-hailing riders with GDL will be provided driving lessons due to allegations that they do not follow road laws. We will recognise who is working in the p-hailing service and their behaviour patterns via GDL,” he said, according to BFM.

Wee also claims that the eligible age for acquiring the GDL will be reduced from 21 to 18.

On August 5, a “food delivery blackout” was planned, whereby food delivery riders decided to collectively organise a strike to protest against the unfair payment scale being used by delivery companies.

“I will give you an example. Before this, if a rider under this one company takes a double order – meaning he delivers food from one vendor to two customers – the rider would get full payment for both orders. Meaning, that if the distance for each order gets them RM5, then he will get RM10 in total.

“But now, the company has cut the amount to only RM7 or RM8,” a source told Malaysiakini.

Following that, Grab released a statement saying that there have been no reduction in wages.

According to the company’s remark, the recent concern expressed by a delivery partner was caused by a glitch in its system, where the rider noticed a disparity in his income. The ride-hailing network operator stated that the problem has been resolved by transmitting the deficit to all impacted partners.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused our partners and would like to encourage our partners to contact us via our Facebook page or visit us at Grab Driver Centre & Kiosks (GDC) if they have any further questions,” the company said, as per The Star.

Because of changes in the payout mechanism used by e-hailing companies, delivery riders contend that their monthly income has decreased significantly over time.

According to NST, some riders used to earn up to RM4,000 per month, but now only garner between RM2,500 and RM3,000. Many have speculated that some companies may have had to minimise incentive benefits and perks in order to entice more riders to join the industry, but none of these allegations have been proven thus far.