Our Desk | A taxi issue

Catarina Pinto

We have all had a taxi horror story in Macau. Some are laughable and come in handy when entertaining and amusing friends who have never set foot here, or are thinking of visiting. Some other stories, well, are a bit more frightening, and make us question the city we live in.
Since the “Macau Taxi Driver Shame” Facebook page was launched, I’ve come to the conclusion that my taxi horror stories aren’t that extreme after all. There have been others who have certainly faced more terrifying experiences.
However, I’ve got a few to tell. I was once standing in front of the Portuguese school, with a huge traveling bag by my side, about three weeks after I arrived in Macau. As a newcomer and unaware of all the hurdles hailing a taxi here, I was hoping to quickly get one and arrive at my new place in one piece. Well, every taxi driver who stopped would drive away after hearing my desired destination – Tap Seac – some even drove away while my hand was still on the door. A typical reaction, I would later realize.
One that did stop and was willing to drive me over to Tap Seac was an illegal one. Green colored and with no taxi sign whatsoever. I was defeated by frustration, and ended up walking the whole way there.
Another typically laughable story happens when a driver agrees to take us and starts to drive to our destination. But suddenly decides, while already traveling, that… well… such a location is not convenient after all, and thinks that dropping us off God knows where is acceptable.
Another incident happened to me in my early days in Macau, when I wanted to attend an event in the NAPE area. I didn’t know the location well and thought a taxi was a perfect solution. It was raining cats and dogs, traffic was terrible, and suddenly the lady who was driving started shouting – which for me was the same as being mute, because I don’t understand nor speak Cantonese, unfortunately. The communication problem is often our fault; I’m on “the other side of the world” and fail to have a sound knowledge of the most spoken local language.
She dropped me off, still shouting, somewhere near Landmark. It took half an hour to find the venue – because, to be honest, I don’t have the greatest geographical and navigational skills.
When speaking about taxi hurdles in Macau, we’ve all been told at some point to look beyond our first impressions and beyond our urge to hold a grudge against almost all taxi drivers we have met along the way. Some argue that they are not well paid, that they are not independent workers, and that while trying to bargain for more money – sometimes ten-times higher than the normal taxi fare – they are simply trying to provide for their families.
Although I agree there are reasons behind their behavior that should be addressed and improved, I can’t possibly understand how being low paid – which is yet to be proven – or having a time consuming and hard job gives someone the right to mistreat others. Or to leave them stranded somewhere. Or to deny a pregnant woman a lift.
There are low paid jobs everywhere and we do have the right to stand up and fight for better work conditions. But when I first started my career, I also wasn’t that well paid, as almost all recent graduates can attest. But it didn’t really occur to me to mistreat people who I worked with or who I depended on to get my work done.
What seems to be even more unbelievable is that some of these stories aren’t a mere dispute between drivers and clients. Some are criminal cases. Those which should be handled by the police. But the police, often called to solve a dispute, tell us that it’s all up to DSAT (the transportation bureau) to handle. Well, it’s clearly not.