2024-08-04 04:05:29
August 4, 2024
image source,BBC Chinese News
If you ask Hong Kong people what they hate about this city, the taxi (taxi, taxi) industry will probably be on the list.
What are the most common complaints? Behaving rudely, refusing rides, and taking detours to increase mileage charges.
When talking about taxi drivers in Hong Kong, it is easy for everyone to recount their unpleasant experiences. Businessman He Guobiao is one of them. He recalled to BBC Chinese that before his mother passed away in 2018, he regularly accompanied her, who needed a wheelchair, to the hospital for follow-up consultations. If he took a taxi, he would be refused rides half the time.
“I don’t need you to carry my mother to and from the car, and I don’t need you to move the wheelchair. I moved it myself.”
In June this year, the Hong Kong Taxi Industry Council launched a “courtesy campaign” in an attempt to improve service quality. The industry organization sends “courtesy ambassadors” to taxi ranks to distribute leaflets promoting best practices to taxi drivers.
Does this work? It probably depends on who you ask the question to.
Huang Zhuobang, chairman of the Taxi Industry Council, told BBC Chinese: “This is not the first year we have organized this campaign, and the response from drivers has been positive.”
However, SAR government statistics show that there are 46,000 active taxi drivers in Hong Kong. Dr. Huang admitted that a politeness campaign cannot completely solve the problem.
The general public has no interest in this movement;An interview with local media Now NewsIt became a hot topic on the Internet – a taxi driver said: “If the customers are polite, we will be polite; if the customers are not polite, how can we be polite? It’s useless. You teach the customers first.”
This statement was regarded by netizens as “evidence” that Hong Kong’s taxi service cannot improve.
Amy is in her 30s. She told BBC Chinese that a taxi ride experience a few years ago made her never want to take a taxi in Hong Kong again.
“I didn’t notice that the destination was very close. It arrived very quickly, so I wanted to pay. I was rummaging in the bag for about five seconds when he (the driver) said: ‘Auntie, you are so slow!’ Get out of the car! I can’t afford to take a taxi here!”
There are many complaints about taxis in Hong Kong, but it is also difficult to complain
The departments within the Hong Kong SAR government that deal with taxi driver complaints and law enforcement include the Transport Advisory Committee (TCAC) Complaints Unit, the Transport Department and the police. The Traffic Complaints Unit of the TAC received more than 11,400 complaints about taxi drivers in 2023, an increase of 11% from 2019 before the COVID-19 epidemic. During the same period, the Transport Department received 2,544 complaints against taxi drivers.
However, very few of these complaints can ultimately be punished by law enforcement – taking the cases referred to the Hong Kong police by the Traffic Complaints Unit in 2023 as an example, only 3.4% were successfully ticketed. As the process takes time, many passengers will not complain to the authorities despite their grievances.
- Refusing to take a ride without reasonable excuse; not taking the most direct and practicable route (driving); not charging according to the toll rate specified in the law; not using a taxi meter (meter)——Maximum fine of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (1,281 US dollars; 9,315 yuan; 42,000 NT dollars) and imprisonment for half a year
- Refusal to provide receipt——Maximum fine of HK$5,000 and imprisonment for half a year
- Impolite and unruly——Maximum fine of HK$3,000 and imprisonment for half a year
Mr. Tang, an information technology employee, takes taxis about three times a month. He told BBC Chinese: “Taxis usually stop on the side of the road. You have to bow first and wait for the driver to roll down the window to hear whether he wants to go where you want to go. Why do I feel like this? Because you said the purpose Hell, it will take him a few seconds to answer whether you are going or not.”
“I also tried telling the destination before getting in the car. If he didn’t want to go there, the driver would keep thinking about it.”
What made him even more discouraged was that the drivers were unwilling to open the map to check the navigation and asked him how to get there. “The most outrageous thing is that there are several mobile phones plugged into the front of the car (on the dashboard).”
Tourists are one of the “prey” that “black drivers” are eyeing. Early July,A traveler from Zhejiang said on Xiaohongshu, she took a HK$56 car ride and paid HK$1,000 in banknotes, but the driver only gave HK$44 in change. She called the police, but the driver denied it and claimed that she paid a HK$100 ticket. In the end, there was insufficient evidence and the money would not be returned.
At the end of April, another Zhejiang netizen saidshe took a taxi from AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong Airport to Citygate Tung Chung. “It takes about 3.5 kilometers and takes about 10 minutes” – the actual distance is about 5 kilometers – the meter showed that the fare was HK$135, which was also 1,000. I asked for change in Hong Kong dollar bills, but the driver “gave me 100 less, and used a 10-yuan Macau patacas instead of 100 Hong Kong dollars.”
The red color of the 10 Macau patacas (US$1.24; 9.06 yuan; NT$40.8; HK$9.72) note is very similar to that of the 100 Hong Kong dollar note.
In addition to service quality, taxi safety in Hong Kong has also been criticized for a long time. According to statistics from the Hong Kong SAR Police Traffic Headquarters, taxi accident rates (accident occurrence rates) have long been second only to franchised public buses (buses/buses) and public light buses (minibuses). In 2023, they will completely surpass them and top the list.
According to statistics from the Insurance Authority of the Hong Kong SAR, taxi insurance has long been a loss-making business. In 2023, comprehensive insurance (commonly known as comprehensive insurance) and statutory compulsory third-party liability insurance were added together, with a total loss of HK$50.88 million.
At the beginning of 2022, Taiga Insurance Company, which held 60% of the taxi insurance market share at the time, announced that it would end its taxi insurance business. It evolved into a takeover by the China Insurance Regulatory Bureau and applied to the court for a liquidation order. Other insurance companies have successively increased premiums in the process of accepting Taiga’s “abandoned taxis”, which has also increased taxi operating costs.
Yi Zhiming, a member of the SAR Legislative Council for shipping and transportation, once said in a written question to officials: “Some taxi owners prefer to leave their taxis idle because they cannot afford the expensive insurance premiums.” The lawmakers also reported the problem of taxi insurance claims fraud. It is also plaguing the insurance industry.
Hong Kong taxis – an investment tool that guarantees steady profits?
image source,BBC Chinese News
Image caption,The taxi price displayed outside a car agency in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong: HK$2.98 million. Taxi licenses have long been as common a rent-seeking investment tool as real estate.
The bad attitude of drivers may be just a symptom of the underlying problems in Hong Kong’s taxi industry. They are facing high operating costs, increased competition and bureaucracy.
Hong Kong taxis are divided into three categories: urban, New Territories and Lantau. Figures from the Transport Department of the Hong Kong SAR show that as of May 2024, there are 18,163 registered taxis in Hong Kong, of which 17,807 are actually licensed. The 356 taxis in the middle are believed to be idle taxis.
The upper limit of 18,163 taxi licenses has hardly been relaxed since it was capped in 1994 during the British Hong Kong period – the SAR government only issued 25 additional Lantau taxi licenses in 2016. Holding a taxi license and renting taxis to drivers has become a common investment tool like real estate. Under the current licensing terms, poor service quality will not result in the taxi license being revoked by the government.
The TV series “Brothers in Trouble”, which was broadcast during the handover period of Hong Kong’s sovereignty in July 1997, has a certain degree of popularity. There is such a dialogue in it that reflects this investment trend.Li Qi, the retired movie star played by Luo Jialiang, said: “Do you know? The taxi parked downstairs is worth more than 3 million… The house I live in now is 599 feet (square feet; 55.65 square meters) and is worth more than 3 million.”
Urban taxis can operate in the widest area and have the highest license value. The current value of an urban taxi license is about HK$3 million, which has dropped by more than half compared with the peak in 2013. Leung Tat-chuang, deputy director of the Taxi Drivers Branch of the Hong Kong Motor Transport Industry Federation, pointed out that car rentals (taxi rentals) continue to rise. With a 12-hour shift (one shift), a taxi driver has to pay a rental fee of HK$500. This does not include fuel costs.
At present, Hong Kong taxi vehicles, except for a very small number of electric vehicles, are required by law to use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as fuel. Every day before taxi “turnover” (shift change), there are always long queues at gas stations, which not only affects surrounding traffic, but also means a waste of working hours.
Liang Dazhuang has been a taxi driver for more than 20 years. He told BBC Chinese: “The hours we do business are not continuous. It is mainly during peak traffic hours. There are more customers than during prime times. Sometimes we wait for 15 or 25 minutes without a single customer.”
“We have to make ends meet, and some drivers are desperate and desperate. How can they have the ability to improve (service)?” He admitted that this is not an excuse for bad behavior, but it is the “reality” of the industry.
Would you rather drive an illegal “white plate” car than a licensed taxi?
Image caption,In order to operate legally in Hong Kong, Uber also recruits taxi drivers to join its network.
Taxis are also facing fierce competition from ride-hailing service Uber.
Strictly speaking, Uber, which is based in San Francisco (San Francisco) in the United States, is still an illegal “white-label car” in Hong Kong – there are currently no online ride-hailing regulations in Hong Kong, but there are“Taxi License”System – The industry publicly requested the SAR government to crack down on the platform, claiming that Uber drivers are not subject to the same licensing and insurance laws, which is unfair to the taxi industry.
In late May, some taxi drivers spontaneously organized a militia-style “snake release” operation to report Uber drivers. After the news came out, it attracted strong criticism from the public.
Since entering the Hong Kong market in 2014, Uber’s services have become popular in the city of 7.5 million people. In a promotional release commemorating the 10th anniversary of its Hong Kong operations, the company stated that it has served 3.6 million Hong Kong passengers and a total of 100 million journeys over the years. Zhou Guoqiang, chairman of the Hong Kong Taxi and Minibus Merchants Association, told BBC Chinese: “We underestimated (underestimated) this app for a while. Nowadays, the public does not mind taking more expensive cars for the ride experience.”
Zhou Guoqiang opposes the existence of Uber, but he believes that because drivers have the right to select passengers and fares are agreed in advance on the platform, there are fewer conflicts. He also admitted that the industry has been too slow to accept online appointment systems and electronic payments. He estimates that about a third of Hong Kong’s taxis have joined ride-hailing platforms like HKTaxi – which was acquired by Uber in August 2021 – while at the same time, most taxi drivers still do not accept payment methods other than cash. .
The Zhejiang tourist who accused a Hong Kong taxi driver of overcharging him by a large amount on Xiaohongshu mentioned that the taxi had an Alipay logo on it, but the driver only accepted cash.
Image caption,WeChat Pay (green) and Octopus card (orange) signs on a Hong Kong taxi. The proportion of taxis that accept electronic payment is low, and even if you see relevant signs posted in the carriage, you may not be able to use it.
Hong Kong’s taxi industry is also struggling to attract new blood, with the average age of drivers reaching 60 years old. Zhou Guoqiang said the lack of future is an important factor because taxi fares have only increased three times in the past 10 years. In 2023, the average monthly income of urban taxi drivers will be approximately HK$20,000, which is approximately 10% higher than the median income in Hong Kong. According to Numbeo, an international cost-of-living database website, taxi fares in Hong Kong rank 45th highest in the world.
Liang Dazhuang said: “The outside world thinks that you have to drive a taxi if you are poor, and getting a taxi driver’s license is just to gain a skill.” He believes that the SAR government should tighten the requirements for entry into the industry and provide more training to taxi drivers to improve the professional image.
The extremely difficult London black taxi driver test
In London, things are more complicated.
Image caption,Obtaining a London black taxi driving license requires “rote memorization” of extensive knowledge of routes and landmarks.
To become a qualified driver of a classic London black cab, you must firstSign up to take the “The Knowledge” exam. The assessment involves 320 specific routes within a 6-mile radius (9.66 kilometers) centered on London’s Charing Cross (Charing Cross), memorizing various knowledge of 25,000 streets and 100,000 landmarks, and using this knowledge to participate in seven The assessment is divided into three stages, including self-assessment, written examination, oral defense, suburban knowledge assessment and lecture before issuance of driver’s license. Road tests are not included here yet.
This assessment was established in 1865 when taxis were still horse-drawn carriages rather than automobiles. Transport for London (TfL) clearly stated that it would take three to four years to master all the contents of the “world-renowned” “Encyclopedia of Knowledge” – equivalent to studying for a bachelor’s degree.
To complete the entire course, pass the assessment, and obtain a taxi driver’s license, it will cost approximately £5,000 (USD 6,493; RMB 47,100; NT$ 211,800; HKD 50,700).
From July 1, 2024, TfL has also added some new license requirements, including domestic and overseas criminal record reviews, and reporting any arrests and tickets issued within 48 hours.
After passing five levels and defeating six generals, a generous income awaits London taxi drivers:TfL regulationsLondon taxis charge 3.80 pounds for the first 170.4 meters or 36.6 seconds during the day, and then 20p (0.2 pounds) for every 85.2 meters or 18.3 seconds.
Approved by the Hong Kong SAR Government,From July 14, 2024, urban taxis charge HK$29 for the first 2 kilometers. In other words, the fare for the first 2 kilometers of a black taxi in London is 2.8 times that of a taxi in urban Hong Kong.
Online ride-hailing platforms like Uber have long been allowed to operate legally in London, coordinating “mini-cabs” to carry passengers for a fee, but they are also recruiting black taxis and drivers to join, or even subsidizing “mini-cab” drivers Go and apply for the “Encyclopedia of Knowledge” exam.
New Taxi Regulations: The dawn of light or the beginning of a fight?
However, Hong Kong’s taxi industry is about to undergo a number of major reforms.
A new demerit points system for taxi drivers will come into effect in September. Those who misbehave may be temporarily suspended (license revoked) upon conviction in court.
image source,BBC Chinese News
Image caption,After 30 years of having more than 18,000 licenses, Hong Kong’s taxi market is about to undergo significant changes.
The SAR government has also decided to launch five taxi fleet licenses. The bidding results were announced on July 31. The Transport Department expects the winning bidder to complete preparations and officially open for business within a year. Licensed companies have flexible pricing in exchange for fleets having to provide online ride-hailing services, a personal rating system for drivers, and accept electronic payment for fares. Zhou Guoqiang participated in the license bidding, hoping to invest HK$70 million to build a fleet of 400 high-quality taxis.
The SAR government also told the Legislative Council that it hopes to submit legislative proposals in 2025 and ultimately legalize online ride-hailing platforms through a licensing system.
An Uber spokesperson told Hong Kong media that he welcomed the plan, but warned not to cap the number of licenses, otherwise it would affect the many drivers who rely on its platform to “flexibly earn income”; taxi industry representatives reiterated the severe punishment of “white-plate taxis” , demanding that the supervision of online ride-hailing services be aligned with that of taxis.
Leong is still hopeful about the future of the taxi industry: “If we can provide quality services, the industry will grow and the number of passengers will increase.”
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