Voices

Taxi company monopolies allow 'black' cabs to flourish

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-27 07:51

A survey conducted by Beijing News found mixed feelings toward unlicensed taxis among the public.

In the online survey of 3,219 respondents, 83.4 percent said that they had taken a "black" (unlicensed) taxi. On the question of what risk, if any, unlicensed vehicles may pose, 54.3 percent cited black taxi's "lack of safety guarantee" and said it would "hard to get compensation in case of an accident".

When asked why black taxis remain, despite periodic crackdowns, most respondents said it was "hard to find legal taxis in some places" and also blamed "poor management and supervision". Some 47.6 percent of those surveyed said they would turn down black taxis if public transportation becomes more convenient.

So, although many Beijingers seem to enjoy the convenience of black taxis, they still seem to support stricter measures to eliminate them. They have safety concern about such taxis but realize they cannot do without them. These complicated feelings have long existed. They also reflect the public security department's embarrassing inability to effectively deal with black taxis.

Unlicensed taxis and motorbikes have long troubled the police. Harsh measures have been adopted all over the country to root them out. But the results are not optimistic. In April of 2006, for example, Beijing launched a month long campaign. During this campaign authorities fined the black taxi drivers they caught 500,000 yuan. But after the campaign ended the capital was still filled with black taxis.

In late 2008, taxi drivers in Chongqing staged a strike, one of their complaints was rampant spread of black taxis that they said was affecting their business. They appealed the police to crack down on the black taxi drivers.

But we should not place all the blame on the police. Taxi companies are partly responsible for the headache of black taxis. The taxi market is highly monopolized. Barriers to market access guarantees exorbitant profits for the management department and taxi companies, which seriously twists the market, leading to the appearance of black taxis.

Sun Liping, a scholar of sociology at Tsinghua University, viewed the phenomenon of unlicensed vehicles as a resistance against the current unreasonable taxi management system. When such resistance wins widespread social sympathy, it is harder to eliminate it, according to Sun. Harsher measures alone will prove futile in solving the problem, or worse, may result in a serious social backlash.

Relevant departments must have the courage to break the taxi companies' monopoly and really play the role of market supervisor. When the monopoly is broken and market order restored, unlicensed vehicles may disappear.

Excerpts from a comment in Beijing News.