Restricting apps for taxis may not work
Print Edition
EFFORTS to curb taxis from picking up business from apps may have a limited impact as it would be difficult to monitor them.
Starting yesterday, roughly 6,000 taxis of the approximately 50,000 taxis in the city were made available for roadside hailers and taxi dispatches during peak hours as per the recommendations of the Shanghai Transport Commission. But the recommendations are not legally binding, meaning the drivers can only be reprimanded without any fear of legal action.
The commission came up with the recommendations as the apps were taking away most of the taxi business leaving roadside hailers with little choice. It became more of an issue for senior citizens and elderly who were not in tune with smartphones and apps.
An elderly couple told Shanghai Television news that they waited for half an hour outside Huashan Hospital even as several vacant taxies just drove past them.
The taxi companies came up with their own set of rules to deal with the situation. The companies said it will send out its staff members to do spot checks on cabbies and rely on complaints from passengers to punish violators.
Shanghai Dazhong Taxi Company said a driver who is caught breaking the rule will have at least five points deducted from his 20-point credit account set up by the company. When all the points are used up, the company will suspend the driver’s operative license. Qiangsheng also has a similar system in place. Its drivers will be fined 200 yuan if they are caught more than once violating the rules.
Shanghai Transport Commission chief Sun Jianpian admitted that the taxi companies’ rules were hardly a deterrent.
“It really depends on the drivers themselves,” Sun said. “I hope they can ‘sacrifice’ few hours every week to follow the rules, which is also their social responsibility.”
If the current recommendations don’t work, authorities will consider forcing companies to drop app business for a day once a week.
“For example, we will ask Dazhong taxis to avoid app business on Mondays; Haibo on Tuesdays; Jinjiang on Wednesdays and Qiangsheng on Thursdays or Fridays,” Sun said yesterday.
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