‘Fishing’ under the national flag

As yet another Golden Week brought an increase in the number of tourists visiting Macau, complaints about taxi drivers’ behavior and services rose as well, said Andrew Scott, administrator of the Facebook group Macau Taxi Driver Shame and president of the Macau Taxi Passengers Association (MTPA).
As cabs drove around town during the Golden Week holidays – while displaying China national flags – ‘fishing’ remained one of the main complaints registered on the Facebook group page.
“The major problem is always fishing. Fishing is becoming extremely aggressive, to the point of being very scary,” Andrew Scott stressed. The term fishing has been used to describe a number of techniques used by taxi drivers, who are seeking to sometimes make 10 times more than the original fare.
Refusing passengers who are not willing to pay more, usually locals, or that are not heading to a convenient place for the taxi driver are some of the frequently reported cases. Passing by a taxi stand without picking up a passenger, but stopping nearby to choose more convenient customers is another tactic used.
Throughout the holiday, some of the members of the Macau Taxi Driver Shame group have dubbed recent taxi drivers behavior as ‘fishing under the China national flag,’ or ‘GoldFish Week.’
Andrew Scott stressed that people have been complaining mainly of aggressive fishing, with some members even unveiling stories where they felt they were being kidnapped by their taxi driver.
Resident Ana Bento is amongst them. She was trying to get a taxi at Fisherman’s Wharf with a colleague in the early hours of Thursday morning, hoping to meet up with some other friends for breakfast in another part of town. When Ana got into a taxi, before her colleague entered the taxi, the driver started scolding them in Cantonese.
“My colleague was still outside. I remember that I said something to the taxi driver, but he started shouting in Cantonese and suddenly he starts driving. I was in the taxi and had no idea where he was going to take me,” she told the Times.
Ana told him that her friend was still outside, but he kept talking in Cantonese and driving away, so she tried to look up the Transport Bureau (DSAT) telephone number. She had no time to call DSAT, however, as the taxi driver suddenly stopped at Star World Hotel, where he left the car and talked to a policeman.  “I left the taxi too, and talked to the policeman. Then the taxi driver went back to the taxi and was ready to leave, while my bag was still inside. I told him my bag was still inside, so he took it and put it on the car’s tailgate, and left,” Ana recalled.
Although many locals have complained of police officers’ handling of quarrels between taxi drivers and customers, Ana said that all policemen with whom she dealt were very diligent. She went to a police station to file a complaint, and is willing to further pursue the case.
Ana said that she had never faced such a situation before. The taxi issues she had encountered so far were mainly related to the hurdles of getting a taxi, rather than being inside one and driven to an unknown location.
“This time, the taxi driver actually took me somewhere, although I did not know where I was being taken or what he was going to do. He could have driven to me to Coloane or even raped or hurt me somehow. I was a woman alone inside a taxi with a man talking in Cantonese (…) It really feels like you’re being kidnapped. So when he stopped in front of the policeman I was actually relieved,” Ana said.
Andrew Scott believes that some taxi drivers “no longer see themselves as having a service obligation to the people of Macau.” Instead, he claimed that they “are trying to legally get as much money as they possibly can.” He added: “I am hearing that some drivers made up to MOP5,000 in one shift during the Golden Week.”
Andrew Scott created the Facebook group in July and so far 4,000 members have joined, sharing horror stories related to taxi drivers, while also praising good drivers.
As the demand for an improved taxi industry grows, he also founded the Macau Taxi Passengers Association, the website of which will be launched today. “We will have a much more tightly regulated blacklist and whitelist reporting system, so that people can report [incidents] through the website, providing their ID and filling out a standard form, and then they can go directly do DSAT,” Andrew revealed.
The association has pledged to denounce bad taxi drivers, but is also keen on congratulating and acknowledging those who do a good job. Andrew said that another initiative planned by the association will see customers giving cards to taxi drivers whom they think provided a good service.
Andrew Scott recognized that they have achieved quite a lot over the past three months.
“I firmly believe that DSAT wants to fix the problem, it’s just a very difficult problem to solve (…) Taxi drivers are well organized and they’re working in gangs, they don’t drive alone, they drive in gangs and protect each other.” He hopes the government will be in a position to make some changes, as current legislation will be revised to make ‘fishing’ a little bit more difficult for taxi drivers.