New rule to fine taxi drivers for refusals

China Daily, January 19, 2012

Starting on April 1, taxi drivers who, without justification, refuse to take passengers or deliberately take longer routes to increase fares could face fines up to 200 yuan ($32), according to a new regulation by the transportation authority.

Taxi drivers could also be fined for pre-arranging a price higher than what the meter would read for the same trip or for dumping passengers in the middle of a trip, according to the regulation on management of taxi driver qualifications, released by the Ministry of Transport on its website on Wednesday.

Passengers can file complaints to local transportation authorities, the regulation says.

Previously, some cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, also drafted rules regulating the taxi sector, but there was no nationwide regulation with clear punishment set for taxi drivers who discriminate against clients or cheat passengers, said Liu Meiyin, a ministry official in charge of taxi business.

Also, the new regulation for the first time asks all taxi drivers to take qualification tests, which was not required before, he said.

The new rule has drawn great interest from the public because it is getting more and more difficult to catch a cab in large cities, such as Beijing.

Read the full text of the article on China.org.cn

At rush hour in Beijing, riders beg, and many taxi drivers say “No”

January 15, 2013 | by Alexander Nasr

Chinese media is reporting en masse what at first glance seems impossible, even ridiculous: During rush hour in Beijing, taxis can be found parked idle at the curb in the busiest parts of the city, as would-be passengers struggle to find a ride. As Beijing residents complain that it is becoming harder to hail a cab in the city, cabbies grumble that low fares, high monthly fees and gridlock make driving during rush hour a money-losing endeavor–and that it is hard to scrape by even when driving conditions are good.

So many cabs, so few willing drivers

In one widely-circulated news report, a Beijing cab driver with over ten years’ experience was quoted as saying that “more than ten thousand” cabs could be found parked around the city’s center during rush hour, their drivers refusing to carry passengers until traffic subsided. Even when taxis do stop for passengers during peak traffic times, they often refuse rides if they think that the road ahead will be congested.

“It takes half an hour to hail a cab during rush hour, and even then it depends on the driver’s mood,” complained one Beijing commuter. “If you can’t reach an agreement with the driver, they just leave.” It is not uncommon for cabbies to bargain for a higher fare than they would get on-meter.

But cab drivers in Beijing protest that the costs of running a taxi are too high to make a decent living under the best traffic conditions, let alone during rush hour. According to a chart compiled by China Youth Daily, if a cab driver in Beijing works every day of the week for 10 hours a day, the basic costs of running his cab — including rent paid to the cab company, car maintenance and gas — come to around 30 RMB (about US$4.83) per hour. This causes many drivers to park their taxis during rush hour, when it can often take 40 minutes to travel just 1 kilometer and leave cabbies earning less than their basic expenses.

Read the full text post on The Tea Leaf Nation

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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