Previously, theory test was bilingual english/bm. Older people now about 40+ would have gotten their D back then.

I took my GDL about 10 years ago. No Grab or Uber then. What I remember was, about half the people failed. It wasn't difficult then either.

But the type of people taking the test are not your typical uni students. Those type of people, unlikely to be driving lorries or taxis. For bookworm types, you just hit the book(s) like mad for two or three days, and then ace the test. Simple. But our friends who fail and have to re-test ... some never read an entire book since they were in primary school. Not even their own school text books. They're not stupid. They just have a different kind of brain, optimized for other tasks, besides memorizing huge chunks of printed text. I'm sure you know some of them. Hearing that they have to take any test at all ... they think back to their school days, ages ago, when they sucked ... they psyched themselves out before they even sit for the test.

My mom only made it to Form 3. Didn't even complete that. And it was a Mandarin school to boot. Her BM and English was really terrible. When it come time for theory to get her D so that she can drive the car, she keep saying she cannot do. She was nearly 60 by then (driving school say she's their oldest student ever), and never wrote a sentence in English or BM since school. But we worked with her, encouraged her, helped her study the book. Unfortunately for her, she was also one of the first with the then new computerized tests, so even the driving school couldn't tell her what it was like. She worried about how to use a computer to pass a test, but she passed on the first try.

Oh ...
Should have studied better. Only got C3 for BM.

Complain?
I think most of the people on this thread are drivers or wannabe drivers.
Riders aren't interested in this stuff.

So, if it is true that e-hailing PSV is so much more difficult than taxi PSV, why doesn't all the full timers simply go take the taxi PSV instead? Grab says that people with tax PSV don't have to take e-hailing PSV as well.

4. As an existing taxi driver, will I still need to apply for another e-hailing PSV licence?
No, as an existing taxi driver, you may use your existing PSV licence for e-hailing.

https://www.grab.com/my/driver/regulations/

Costs quite a bit more, but if the e-hailing PSV is really that much more impossible to pass, this is surely one solution for them.

It is a market barrier, the main purpose of which is to raise the income of the market participants. If everybody and their uncle can just go join the market whenever they feel like it, the the price will crash until we reach the point where sellers make what is economically called "normal profit". It does not mean what you think it means. In economics, when talking about free markets, when you're making "normal profit", prices are so low, you're actually making no profit at all. It is the theoretical minimum sustainable price. You're just covering costs and barely surviving. If a single additional seller enters the market, the price will dip ever so slightly, that everybody start to go into negative territory.

This sort of barrier exists in every field, in every job, and is probably necessary, if the people in those industries are to many enough to live on. The question is only on how much of a barrier is reasonable. The most obvious is in some sort of licensing requirements.

The secondary purpose is to raise some funds for the government. It's only a tiny amount, but license fees are everywhere.

The third purpose is to protect some groups, who would get angry otherwise, and not vote for the politicians who remove their rice bowl. You now, those driving schools.

20 ft are half sized containers. We see these on the road once in a while. Standard size trailers are 40 feet long. Especially considering that joint/hitch that swivels, I'm amazed that they could maneuver it anywhere at all. I have driven those regular small lorries that only need a D + GDL. Driving them was easy. Parking was extremely difficult, even though they're so much smaller than those big trucks.. And note that you don't have a rear view mirror, because it's blocked by back of the truck.

Every other day on the road, I see inconsiderate car drivers who over take trucks and then immediately pull back to the left ahead of the truck, without leaving sufficient braking distance. Not only can't trucks stop very fast because they're heavy, if the driver stopped too suddenly, they can get killed by their own load shifting forward and into the cab, crushing the back of their head.
I am wondering if this is because Grab drivers are forever afraid of getting bad ratings from riders. If they miss the Waze indicated turn, the trip may take longer, and the rider could get unhappy because this waste their time, and result in a bad rating. If follow the waze route, there's no reason to complain.

Taxi drivers don't really care. If they miss one turn, you can complain, and nothing will happen. Not unless they take you on a 100km detour. Otherwise, you file the complain, it disappears into someone's desk never to be heard of again. Furthermore, grab rides are fixed price, but taxi rides are metered. So they lose nothing from the additional petrol and time spent getting you to your destination.

There's protectionism everywhere. What are you working as in your day job? Say you're a lawyer or an accountant. The government regulates who qualifies to call themselves a lawyer or an accountant. Some reason for those regulations. Mainly market protection. Otherwise, lawyers and accountants will earn as much as bus drivers.

The people within the profession will hide behind it and say that regulation is to ensure some sort of guaranteed service level. I predict the same will happen here. Come July 12, the deadline will get postponed again. But eventually, there will be enforcement and some sort of regulation (whether watered down or not). And the people remaining in it, will claim that the PSV training and licensing will provide some assurance that drivers are conscientious good drivers on the road and not rude to passengers. "But ehailing drivers drive badly and are rude. We hear that all the time", you say. The obvious response is, "without any regulation at all, it will even be worse". They will be wrong. But there's no way for you to prove it.

PS: there is a difference in terms of degrees of market protection. It takes a couple of hours, maybe a day or two, to get the PSV, and a few hundred RM. To get a law degree and pass the bar, it's years of study and a lot more RM. But in the end, it's still market protection.

This post has been edited by danielkh: May 16 2019, 10:06 AM

Nah. He's just simply in public too much. The smarter incompetents simply keep their heads down and let the KSUs keep things running. This way, you don't know that they've not done anything. If you don't try to fix anything, there's less chance of you screwing things up.

If I just need a lawyer to sign on my house purchase? Reputation and cap ayam is not regulated by the government. Even cap ayam lawyer have passed through the hoops.

There's a doctor near my house with his own clinic. One man show, quiet run down. No staff, just he himself. And his appearance also not very neat. If I were sick, I wouldn't go to him. But I always get my medical report for GDL from him. He's also good for getting MCs from. Empty clinic. No queue, no wait, no fuss. He is a properly qualified doctor. Very cheap.

I passed my GDL a decade ago. If you asked me now what was in it, I could barely tell you anything. Taxi drivers in their 40s and 50s, if they started driving 30 years ago, there's just no way anyone could remember anything.

The only way is continuous retesting every 5 years or so. But I am sure everybody till steam come out

I'm with you, even if it means I have to resit the test periodically myself.

But I think if we put in a dash of realism, that's never going to happen. If people are already up in arms over one single test, and so many are having trouble passing it, and some are even looking back at the "good old days" when things could be greased with corruption ...