E-hailing platform inDrive meets country's laws

The Star

6 days ago

PETALING JAYA: E-hailing platform inDrive is now compliant with all regulatory requirements in Malaysia, says its country lead Govin Kumaar Panirsheeluam.
He said administrative issues related to e-hailing vehicle permits (EVP) had led to the recent notice by the Land Public Trans­port Agency (Apad) to revoke inDrive's operating permits.
Govin said inDrive had since corrected the root cause of the administrative issue with assistance from Apad.
He added that the company had conducted various upgrades to its administrative systems to reduce any similar issues from happening again.
He said this included enhan­cing its driver verification processes, conducting stricter documentation checks and initiating internal audits to close any potential gaps related to EVP.
'inDrive is now in constant communication and sharing real time data with Apad to align procedures and strengthen the compliance framework going forward.
'To build a stronger and more resilient platform, we are reactivating and reverifying existing driver accounts while streng­the­ning our driver support systems.
'We fully support the gov­ern­ment's responsibility to ensure safety and order in public trans­­port and are committed to ope­­ra­ting with full transparency,' he said at a press conference here yesterday.
Meanwhile, inDrive Malaysia driver operations manager Azlan Anwar said stricter standard operating procedures had been enforced within the company.
'To strengthen existing safeguards, we have introduced inc­rea­sed layers of validation and verification to detect any inconsistencies or forged documents.
'We have also improved our onboarding journey for drivers through our inDrive academy ­digital e-learning platform to ­better train drivers on safety ­protocols, emergency responses and other aspects.
'This is part of our commitment to build a responsible and professional driver community,' he said.
The e-hailing platform's Asia-Pacific macroregional director Mark Tolley said the platform would continue to focus on improving and elevating its services to better serve the people.
'We understand that we didn't get it right, but we believe Malay­sia is the right place for inDrive and we will continue to focus on improving and elevating our ­services to better serve Malay­sians,' he said.
In May, Apad revoked the operating permits of e-hailing platforms – InDrive and Maxim – with an order to cease all operations in Malaysia by July 24 for allegedly operating illegally.
Apad then announced that the two companies would be allowed to resume their operations on July 23, subject to a review every three months.