Price rise pledge ends taxi strike
By Xu Wenwen |
August 5, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HANGZHOU taxis are back in business after drivers ended a three-day strike yesterday which prompted the local government to promise to raise fares.
By the afternoon, more than 7,000 cabs, or 80 percent of the fleet, were running on the streets in the east Zhejiang Province city, transport officials said.
"Now that the government has pledged to adjust fares, we have decided to resume work. We hope the new policies can be carried out as soon as possible to relieve our burden for living," said a representative of the striking cabbies surnamed Chen.
Explaining why he went back to work, a driver surnamed Ye, a cabbie for six years, said: "We were reluctant to strike but did it for survival, and now we have to work for survival as well."
The strike began on Monday morning when about 1,500 cabbies, mostly from central China's Henan Province, began a protest over skyrocketing food, gasoline and housing prices, and unchanged cab fares since 2006.
There were some ugly scenes over the first two days with some strikers heckling drivers still picking up passengers, and even throwing stones at their cabs.
Drivers said they couldn't make ends meet as they earned just 400 yuan (US$61) to 500 yuan for each 10-hour shift but were charged up to 230 yuan by their companies and had to pay nearly 200 yuan for fuel.
The city government has pledged to raise fares by the end of October and provide a temporary subsidy of 1 yuan for each trip from Monday.
"Traffic authorities have looked into adjusting cab fares for months, listening to the opinions of many cab drivers and their employers. We are now preparing to hold a public hearing on that," said Wang Yichuan, deputy director of the Hangzhou Municipal Traffic Bureau.
"According to our estimates, a cab driver can make an average 42 passenger trips every day, which means drivers can get a subsidy of more than 1,200 yuan a month."
Cab drivers welcomed the news, although some said fares should have been raised long before now and that the 1 yuan subsidy was too low. Some said their average of 20 trips per shift meant the subsidy was just 20 yuan a day.
By the afternoon, more than 7,000 cabs, or 80 percent of the fleet, were running on the streets in the east Zhejiang Province city, transport officials said.
"Now that the government has pledged to adjust fares, we have decided to resume work. We hope the new policies can be carried out as soon as possible to relieve our burden for living," said a representative of the striking cabbies surnamed Chen.
Explaining why he went back to work, a driver surnamed Ye, a cabbie for six years, said: "We were reluctant to strike but did it for survival, and now we have to work for survival as well."
The strike began on Monday morning when about 1,500 cabbies, mostly from central China's Henan Province, began a protest over skyrocketing food, gasoline and housing prices, and unchanged cab fares since 2006.
There were some ugly scenes over the first two days with some strikers heckling drivers still picking up passengers, and even throwing stones at their cabs.
Drivers said they couldn't make ends meet as they earned just 400 yuan (US$61) to 500 yuan for each 10-hour shift but were charged up to 230 yuan by their companies and had to pay nearly 200 yuan for fuel.
The city government has pledged to raise fares by the end of October and provide a temporary subsidy of 1 yuan for each trip from Monday.
"Traffic authorities have looked into adjusting cab fares for months, listening to the opinions of many cab drivers and their employers. We are now preparing to hold a public hearing on that," said Wang Yichuan, deputy director of the Hangzhou Municipal Traffic Bureau.
"According to our estimates, a cab driver can make an average 42 passenger trips every day, which means drivers can get a subsidy of more than 1,200 yuan a month."
Cab drivers welcomed the news, although some said fares should have been raised long before now and that the 1 yuan subsidy was too low. Some said their average of 20 trips per shift meant the subsidy was just 20 yuan a day.
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