Hong Kong's beleaguered taxi drivers form coalition to launch app to head off Uber threat
A new coalition of taxi drivers and operators is launching a smartphone app to allow passengers to hail cabs and rate drivers in a bid to address the sector’s long-running service woes and to head off competition from new operators like Uber.
A new coalition of taxi drivers and operators is launching a smartphone app to allow passengers to hail cabs and rate drivers in a bid to address the sector’s long-running service woes and to head off competition from new operators like Uber.
Claiming a membership of over half of the city’s 40,000-odd taxi drivers and 17 industry groups which own over half of the 18,138 taxis on the road, the Hong Kong Taxi Trade Council announced its plan to the media yesterday.
The council’s committee said the “unprecedented move” to bring together the industry’s often disparate groups was a “much-needed” response to calls to bring in more regulation akin to a centralised supervisory mechanism – the lack of which was blamed as the cause of the city’s much-criticised taxi service in a Transport and Housing Bureau paper issued last month.
Last year, an all-time high of over 10,000 complaints were filed against taxi drivers, according to the government’s Transport Complaints Unit.
The city’s taxi industry is facing keen competition as car-hailing apps such as Uber gain popularity among Hongkongers, and has been calling for stricter regulation of its competitors. In August, police arrested seven Uber drivers and raided the American firm’s local office.
“The taxi industry has always been like a sheet of loose sand,” said Polytechnic University transport expert Dr Hung Wing-tat, who is also the chairman of the council’s board of directors.
“Most drivers are self-employed, and that’s a feature of Hong Kong’s taxi industry. But this is also why a concerted effort for the development of the entire industry is lacking.”
The first attempt to “win back the public’s trust in the taxi service”, said transport sector lawmaker Frankie Yick Chi-ming from the Liberal Party, will be the launch of a smartphone app. Tentatively set for spring next year, it will offer 500 taxis – three per cent of the city’s cabs – for passengers to hail.
Only drivers recommended by respective taxi groups would be approved to take orders through the app, said the council’s honorary adviser, Mark Fu Chuen-fu. Depending on passenger response, he said, the council would aim to extend the “pilot scheme” to include at least 1,000 taxis later next year.
Another feature of the app is to allow passengers to review a driver’s performance.
“Those with good ratings will receive an attractive cash prize while those who get persistent bad reviews will need to undergo training or else be removed from the app,” said Fu.
In the long run, the council will discuss with the government how the industry can attract youngsters to join the ageing industry – with the average age of drivers reaching almost 60 – and step up training in areas such as language, manners and the use of technology for existing drivers.
The number of taxi licences has remained flat for the last 20 years. A licence can cost up to HK$6.5 million, according to industry site Taxixchange.com.
