MANY times we have heard complaints about taxi drivers overcharging passengers, being reckless, rude and even threatening passengers. Not only is their attitude bad, their taxis are also old and dirty.

We read these stories almost daily in the newspaper and if you search the subject "KL taxi cheat" in Google, you can get more than 6,700 sites discussing the subject.

It is a real disgrace to Malaysia, even more so after millions have been spent by the Government to promote tourism in Malaysia.

Whenever I have company guests, colleagues or friends coming from overseas, I will always remind them not to use the taxis in Kuala Lumpur but to use the hotel limousines, the LRT or monorail if possible.

Every time one of them uses the taxi service, I will be bombarded with very embarrassing stories about how he was cheated or how bad the state of the taxi was.

I would like to suggest that more drastic measures be taken by the Government to remedy the situation. The policy states that no foreigners are allowed to drive taxis, but maybe we need them after all to bring some good examples to the local drivers.

Just look at taxis in Jakarta and Bangkok - they are good, clean and efficient.

The policy also states that permits can only be given to individual companies or drivers. Again, maybe we need a government agency to own these cars and permits and make the drivers just employees working on commission.

Have all these possibilities been explored by the relevant authorities? Are they ready to think of out of the box? Have they ever learned how taxi services in Singapore, Jakarta and to some extent Bangkok can be so good and successful?

The people are not asking for a posh ride like in a London Black Cab. We are just asking for an honest, decent and comfortable ride from A to B in Kuala Lumpur.

FADLI BAHARUDDIN,

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

-The Star/ANN