Taxi ride rate hike expected by June

A proposal to increase the flag fall rate for local taxis by less than 10 percent will be discussed today with taxi unions, the director of the Transport Bureau, Wong Wan, said

New taxi fares will be introduced by mid-year, the director of the Transport Bureau (DSAT), Wong Wan, told reporters yesterday.
After almost half a year of talks, the government came forward with a proposal that will be presented today to the taxi unions. It suggests increasing the flag fall rate by less than 10 percent.
“Our proposal is just to increase the first [flag fall] fare and not increase the additional. That means that for one taxi ride, the increase will be lower than 10 percent,” Wong said.
However, he added that the proposal must still be discussed with the unions before a final decision is made.
“Last year, they had already submitted several proposals for raising the taxi fare, but they were higher. We have to consider an increase, because the last one was in 2008, and nowadays three years have passed since then,” he said.
But nothing is decided so far. “After half a year, we have already discussed with some associations and we drafted a proposal considering the increase level acceptable to both citizens and drivers’ livelihood. But there is no decision yet,” Wong pointed out.
The head of DSAT did not disclose how much the increase would be. But, according to yesterday’s Portuguese-language newspaper Tribuna de Macau, the flag fall rate will increase from MOP 13 to MOP 15, an eight percent increase.
In June last year, taxi associations submitted two proposals. Three unions proposed a flag fall rate increase to MOP 15, and that the distance for each additional MOP 1.5 be reduced 10 metres to 220 metres.
Another group proposed raising the flag fall rate to MOP 14, with the first MOP 1.5 added after 1,500 metres instead of the current 1,600 metres. The distance for each additional MOP 1.5 thereafter would be cut down to 200 metres.

Union response

The manager of Vang Iek Radio-Taxi Company – which runs the yellow cabs – declined to comment on the government’s proposal.
But, speaking to Macau Daily Times, Mário Ferreira Sin pointed out that gas prices have increased three times since the first proposal was presented last year. “We have to meet and do the math,” he said.
Although they believe that the increase will not help to reduce operational costs, local taxi unions are willing to support the government proposal just to ensure the increase can be introduced faster, according to Tribuna de Macau.
However, the associations said they would submit proposals to update fares more often from now on.
On the other hand, they asked local authorities to grant some of the new 200 taxi licenses gradually, in order to allow for more manpower to be hired in time. They fear an exodus of drivers from the old vehicles to the new ones.
Asked if there are enough drivers in Macau to operate the 200 new taxis, Wong said yesterday that a total of 10,000 people have passed the driving license for this profession. He said discussions about the change to taxi regulations aimed at improving the service quality have just begun and will continue until the end of the year.
Wong was speaking on the sidelines of a Transit Council visit to the new driver learning and test centre located in Cotai. The centre will become fully operational next month.