PUTRAJAYA: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) will conduct a nationwide crack down beginning Oct 1 against individuals providing transportation services using the Uber application.

JPJ director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad said private vehicles found providing the taxi-like services would be impounded.

He said individuals or companies providing the services could also be fined between RM1,000 and RM10,000 or jailed up to a year.

Ismail said using private vehicles as public transport was an offence under Section 16 of the Land Public Transportation Act 2010.

"It is similar to teski sapu or illegal taxi and that is why we are taking action to stop it.

"The public should aware that by using private vehicles as taxi, they are not covered by any insurance should they get involved in any accident," he said here Monday.

Ismail said taxis and limousines using the Uber application would not be affected.

Uber’s services – currently covering 57 cities in 22 countries – pose a definite challenge to many public transport regulators around the world, so much so that some cities such as Miami, Berlin and Seoul have banned it.

The claim by SPAD that Uber utilises private cars, which have no operating licence and as such contravenes existing public transport laws, might have a ring of truth to it. Many of the team here at paultan.org have utilised Uber in their daily travels, and we’ve talked to some of the service’s drivers who used to work in the Uber system as part of limo companies but who are now working in the Uber system on their own. We didn’t go into detail with them on what this meant, and whether the vehicles they were driving were private cars.