OPINION> Commentary
Reform in taxi management
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-12 07:40

The unreasonable taxi management system is the root cause of recent strikes by taxi drivers, says an article in China Youth Daily. The following is an excerpt:

On Nov 10, hundreds of taxi drivers in Sanya, Hainan province, halted operations and gathered at the gate of the municipal government, demanding the government solve problems such as high management fees, rampancy of unlicensed taxies and contract terms.

These problems have already troubled taxi drivers in Chongqing, who went on strike earlier this month. It is no secret that high management fees or the charges paid to taxi companies are a common problem in domestic taxi industry. If this problem could only be solved through strikes, the cost would be too high and it would also set a bad example for solving social problems.

The taxi could have been independently run by a taxi driver and the management of taxies could have been fully handled by the passenger transport office affiliated with the local traffic management bureau. It is similar to what a small business owner should do when opening a shop- he or she only needs to register at the local government department, that monitors the administration of industry and commerce. They do not need to be attached to any trade association or to pay any management fees.

From this perspective, taxi companies are a completely unnecessary link. It is this link that extracts quite a large part of the money earned by taxi drivers with their hard toil. However, this unreasonable system has been here for years and across the country backed by certain interest groups.

As taxi companies repeatedly raise the management fees despite dissatisfaction of taxi drivers and the rising conflicts between the two sides, extreme reactions such as strikes are inevitable. We urgently need a reform of taxi management in China.

(China Daily 11/12/2008 page8)