InDrive Set To Terminate Operations In Malaysia?

In appears e-hailing operators InDrive Malaysia (InDrive) is possibly facing termination by APAD due to allegations of breaching said agency's guidelines.

Thanks to our colleagues over at Careta.my, Carz.com.my has caught wind that e-hailing firm InDrive Malaysia (InDrive) is possibly seeing its Malaysia operations face termination by the Land Transport Agency (APAD).

Word first broke through a report by Scoop.my indicating that the termination stems from the firm allegedly flouting guidelines set by the agency. At the time of writing this, neither the firm nor APAD has issued official statements yet regarding the matter.

Should termination allegations be true, then it will mark a rather surprising turn of events event the upbeat and optimistic narratives issued by InDrive Malaysia in recent months.

Should this be true, it will mark a surprising turn given the somewhat positive and upbeat narratives put out by InDrive in recent months. In fact, earlier this year, it shared an optimistic target of doubling its operations from 20,000 to 40,000 driver-partners by end of this year.

As a refresher, InDrive first entered and established itself in Malaysia in late 2021, operating across just three cities in Peninsular Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur (Klang Valley), Penang, and Johor Bahru – with a similar app-based modus operandi as industry leaders Grab, albeit with one twist - users can haggle over fare prices.

Last month, the firm even launched a new annual Driver Performance Awards Scheme as a means to further incentivise its driver-partners.

More recently, the firm even introduced a new annual Driver Performance Awards scheme. This was designed to recognise and reward top-performing driver-partners based on trip volume, consistency, customer feedback, and safety.

During said scheme’s announcement held last month, InDrive also took the liberty in touting a 36.1% increase in its active driver base. However, the caveat with said figure was that it was recorded as of Aug 2024.

Despite claims of healthy growth across both driver-partners and users fronts, InDrive hasn't exactly provided hard figures behind is business operations in Malaysia.

Additionally, apart from its claims of having 20,000 active driver-partners, InDrive didn’t exactly disclose actual hard figures of its operations. Instead, the firm has elected to highlight its claimed growth through percentage figures only.

Moreover, despite repeated claims by the firm that ALL its driver-partners possess E-Hailing Vehicle Permits (EVPs), Carz.com.my continue to hear allegations from various sources that this may not be true either.

More worryingly though are the continued allegations that not all InDrive driver-partners possess the mandatory E-Hailing Vehicle Permits (EVPs) from APAD despite the firm repeated denial of which.

Again, should this pan out as truth, InDrive will become the second Russian-rooted e-hailing firm to be banned by APAD after rivals Maxim suffered a similar fate prior.

However, we’ll stress again that this is still speculation for now. We’ll have further updates as this story develops.

In the meantime, are you at all surprised to learn of another e-hailing service provider getting axed in Malaysia? Hit the comments below…