HK taxis to revamp image as Uber gains ground

Hong Kong taxi owners and drivers at the Taxi Council launched “TAXI” last week, in an attempt to reclaim some of the ground they have lost to competitors such as Uber.
Eight hundred drivers registered for the scheme, which claims to offer a superior user experience to costumers through endorsed taxi drivers who are obliged to sign up to a “performance pledge.”
TAXI hopes to boost the number of registered drivers to 1,500, along with a further 3,500 independent drivers, stated the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in a recent report.

Rows of red urban taxis and green taxis serving the New Territories area wait for passengers at the HK airport

According to figures compiled by Hong Kong’s Transport Complaints Unit, complaints such as quarrels have risen fivefold in the past 11 years. They often included drivers refusing hire, overcharging passengers and not taking them to their destination via the most direct route, although there were over 93,000 registered complaints between 2003 and 2015, authorities claimed that the real figure could be significantly higher.
An overcharging incident occurred in October 2015 when a Swiss tourist was made to pay HKD8,000 – about 30 times the usual fare – for a trip from Hong Kong International Airport to a hotel in Hung Hom. Police claimed that it was the worse such incident on record in the city.
Meanwhile the ride-hailing app, Uber, has drawn criticism from taxi operators for disrupting the market, which in turn has caused anti-Uber protests and government crackdowns, SCMP stated. The legality of its services was also probed, leading to several court cases.
The report recalled that the taxi industry has called for stricter regulation of these app-hailing services and is looking for ways to “innovate and remain competitive.”