TR EMERITUS

Han Fook Kwang, former veteran newspaper editor and now Senior Fellow at RSIS, says in a CNA article that “Private hire vehicles (PHVs) are said to be responsible for the surge in demand and hence the price of COEs. They are blamed because they are big businesses with financial power to outbid ordinary people.This might be true but it misses the larger point.”

His larger point is that PHVs enable the most effective use of a car as they are the “ultimate usage-based vehicles as you pay only when you use them. You want to travel in a car but without paying the high COE price? Private hire cars enable you to do so.”

He also states that given the finite number of COEs and that securing one depends on ability to pay, the vast majority of people should come to terms that they would lose out to the rich, and so private hire cars are a “godsend”.

It’s difficult to argue against the hard truths dispensed by Mr Han, but he has left out an even larger point: that the unsaid issue is not so much about better usage of cars but profits for big businesses like Grab, Delgro and Gojek because better usage of cars can also be achieved by private individuals organizing themselves to share rides. With the prevalence of social media, matching drivers with passengers can be easily achieved. Yet, the authorities has clamped down on such private initiatives claiming that they are unsafe and that these people cannot be trusted. Are people in general so debased? Did the authorities even give such private initiatives a chance to flourish? Or did they instinctively clamped them down? Is not the government keen on “gotong royong” or is it just “wayang”?

I remember back in the 70’s and 80’s before the onset of ERP, one had to buy an Area Licensing Permit to drive into the Central Business District, as a way of reducing congestion. Alternatively, one could carpool, that is, pick up 3 passengers and enter for free and those of us who hitched a ride would, out of courtesy, pay the driver a small amount. If we could carpool then, why can’t we carpool now?

The “larger point” is that commuters and drivers organizing amongst themselves for a fee to share rides will render private hire platforms irrelevant. The fact is that the government is enforcing superfluous rules to protect the profits of big business at the expense of the people.

And since drivers can only share rides by joining a private-hire platform, private hire cars are effectively vehicles for doing business, ie, for a commercial purpose. Thus, private hire cars should compete for COEs in the commercial vehicle category or Open category, and not in the passenger car categories , for by doing so is to force passenger car drivers to pay for the business cost of private hire cars.

The government has to make up its mind: are PHVs passenger-cars for carpooling or commercial vehicles for profits. They can’t have it both ways.

Foong Swee Fong

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