The Johor Baru-Singapore taxi lane at Larkin Sentral.
Private cars offering door-to-door pickup taxi service between Malaysia, Singapore
Illegal cross-border taxi services between Johor Baru and Singapore are affecting the livelihood of legitimate taxi drivers plying the route.
Persatuan Pemilik Dan Pemandu Teksi Cab Majlis Bandaraya Johor Baru Dan Singapura secretary Mohd Drus Cheng urged the authorities to nab drivers offering illegal taxi service that use private cars.
“They have been around for years but it seems that they are evading the law,” he said when met at Larkin Sentral on Jalan Garuda, Johor Baru.
Mohd Drus, 62, said the illegal service was popular because these cars offered door-to-door pick-up.
Malaysia-registered taxis that ply the cross-border route are only allowed passenger travel between Larkin Sentral and Ban San Street in Singapore.
Passengers who used the illegal services, Mohd Drus said, were either locals in Johor Baru working in the island republic, Malaysians visiting Singapore or Singaporeans coming into Johor Baru.
“Those drivers also solicit passengers arriving at Larkin Sentral from other parts of the peninsula, especially foreign tourists going to Singapore,” he said.
He noted that the illegal taxis were at the terminal around the clock.
He said the drivers used seven to 12-seater MPVs and charged S$25 (RM85.75) per head for a one-way trip.
Among those affected by the illegal taxi service is M. Manomaneym, 66.
The Malaysian licensed cross-border taxi driver said the first six months after the Malaysia-Singapore border reopened, in April 2022, were the best times for many like him.
He said the majority of his passengers were locals working in Singapore who had been forced to stay in the republic when the border between the two countries closed on March 18, 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“They used our service to bring stuff back to their homes in Johor Baru as it is more convenient to use taxis instead of buses,” he added.
Manomaneym, who has been driving a taxi for 24 years, said locals however now preferred to use the cross-border bus service as it was cheaper and people were becoming more prudent.
He lamented the times he had to wait for hours for his turn to enter Singapore as there were many taxis available but not many passengers.
“I have no choice as my permit only allows me to serve the Johor Baru-Singapore route and we are not allowed to cover Johor Baru district,” he said.
Manomaneym said he had not been earning in Singapore dollars for the past month as he always returned empty from the republic after a fare from Johor Baru.
A Singaporean taxi driver, who only wanted to be known as Fauziah, said Singaporean cross-border taxi drivers were fortunate as they were allowed to take passengers elsewhere in the republic.
“Our land transport authority does not have the same restriction like in Malaysia,” she said.
Fauziah, 60, said taxi drivers were also allowed to offer door-to-door pick-up from Singapore passengers’ homes and drop them off at Larkin Sentral, and vice-versa.
“For door-to-door service, our fare is S$60 (RM205.80) per taxi even if you are departing from Larkin Sentral,” she said.
Fauziah also urged the Malaysian authorities to nab illegal cross-border taxi drivers, the majority of whom operated at JB Sentral where many visitors from Singapore enter Johor Baru by bus.
