Crackdown on law-violating taxi drivers greeted by association

The Public Security Police (PSP) is issuing more tickets to law-violating taxi drivers, according to figures revealed on Friday. PSP revealed that it has already prosecuted 352 cases of taxi irregularities in the first seven days of 2015. The police vowed to launch a full-scale crackdown on illegal behavior by taxi drivers.
The Macau Taxi Passengers Association (MTPA) reacted by stating that it is “delighted” at the surge in police enforcement. “The figures show that the total number of tickets issued increased by exactly 1,000 percent from 1,666 for the entire 2014 year (an average of 32 tickets per week) to a total of 352 tickets in the first week of 2015,” stressed the MTPA in a statement, adding that such an increase was not the result of an increase in illegal activity, but due to “a dramatic increase in enforcement.”
“We have been pushing this issue for six months now, and this is the first example of a proactive response by the government. It’s fantastic!” said the group’s president, Andrew Scott. “If this is an example of how the new Chui Sai On government intends to run Macau, I say, ‘Bring it on!’”
Mr Scott added that the “necessary action” needs to be consistently applied, “for many months, so that these law-
breaking taxi drivers can realize that there is a ‘new normal’ in Macau’s taxi industry.”
“The bad drivers need to see the writing on the wall and either clean up their act or get out of the industry,” he said, adding that the MTPA “eagerly looks forward to increased co-operation [with the PSP and Macau government] in the future.”
The head of the PSP traffic commission, Ma Chio Hong said during an operation against taxi irregularities that there were around 1,000 cases of refusing fares or charging excessive fares in 2014, fourfold the number from two years ago. In the 300 cases prosecuted in the first seven days this year, 94 of them were for refusing a fare or charging an excessive fare.
Ma said that since the irregularities of taxi drivers have seriously affected local residents and have damaged the image of Macau, “The police authority will be vigorously tackling the taxi irregularities in a comprehensive manner in 2015.” “Apart from the PSP department of traffic, other PSP departments will be participating in the crackdown 24 hours a day to cover the broader and deeper aspects [of the taxi problems]. We strive to correct the unhealthy trend of refusing fares and charging excessive fares in the taxi industry in a short period of time,” he said. JPL/BY