Grab Malaysia Must Keep Tabs On Its Red Taxi Drivers For Concerns Over Persisting Bad Attitude

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THERE’S nothing new of cab drivers behaving aggressively, rudely or just being plain rascals.
It’s a global phenomenon. But surely more can be done to eradicate their menace, especially when the county is in full public relations-mode to usher in Visit Malaysia 2026 (VMY 2026).
Hot on the heels of a tout taxi driver and his girlfriend who tried to extort tourists from mainland China comes another unfortunate incident.
Shared on Meanwhile in Malaysia Facebook forum (originally featured on Reddit), an Australian solo traveller recounted his very unpleasant experience of trying to get a Grab ride from Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur to Batu Caves, Selayang


It was claimed the driver of a Perodua Bezza bearing the registration plate HBB 7420 had refused to accept the fare but instead requested the tourist to cancel his trip with a RM3 cash offer.
Things got ugly when the Aussie told the driver to do so himself. It was explained that too many cancellations would affect the traveller’s account status.
Things got heated as the driver used profanity and then drove off while the tourist had his hand inside the vehicle. This led to the latter getting dragged a short distance, thus losing both his footing and footwear which resulted in injuries on his arms and legs.
Proclaiming it to be “one of the scariest experiences I have had while travelling”, the visitor has lodged a police report and alerted Grab of this unfortunate incident.
The post has generated 2.6K likes, 460 comments and 270 shares at the time of writing with many commenters keen to offer their take.
Firstly, there was a query regarding the registration plate that denotes it as a ‘red’ taxi rather than a typical e-hail car.

This was confirmed by some commenters with evidence from the original complaint on Reddit.

The explanation proffered was that the driver was probably doing both conventional taxi as well as e-hail Grab driver.

One commenter summed up the situation best pleading with these drivers to understand that passengers are human too and many are unable to afford extra tips or charges.
It was thus unfair of these unprofessional Grab drivers to refuse fares after accepting it on the App. Don’t be an e-hail driver if you have such crummy attitude was the clear message.

Some commuters gave pertinent advice – safety first. Don’t argue and simply click that the driver asked to cancel on the app.

One commenter pointed out that such lousy service (ie fare haggling) is no longer accepted or tolerated in 2025 when modern tech makes reviews and info sharing fast and simple.
A quick search will reveal what are acceptable fares. Due to the actions of such errant drivers, the country gets a bad name.

It was fervently hoped that the advent of e-hail cabs meant the end of tyrannical taxi drivers who set their own fares and who routinely turned away passengers. Alas, this incident highlights that such bad attitudes persist.

Grab – please do something about this lest errant drivers drag not only the company’s reputation down the drain but damage VMY 2026 campaign as well. –  Focus Malaysia

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