Andrew Scott
The Macau Taxi Passengers Association (MTPA) was formally established yesterday. The newly elected president of the association, Andrew Scott, said that he was excited about the development, further stating that he could not have foreseen this when he and his colleagues established the Facebook group Macau Taxi Driver Shame less than three months ago, which has gone viral since.
He also vowed to maintain the objective of the Facebook group, which is to fix the taxi problem in Macau.
“The objective of the association is actually the same as the objective of the Facebook group was, which is fixing the [taxi] problem. And the Facebook group will remain the Facebook group of the association”, he said.
Nevertheless, Mr Scott suggested that there will be a new approach to the issue. He revealed that one of his members was designing a website for the association and will start taking membership through the website following the Chinese National Day holiday, on October 6.
“What we will do is have a blacklist and a whitelist, but it would be via the website. So what will happen is (…), if you want to make an official report to the association, you will do it through the website. To do this you will have to be a member registered to the association so we will have your details [including] your name, ID, phone number, email address. In that way, we can send this report to the Transport Bureau (DSAT) and the person making the report will be identified. (…) So this will be a way for people to report directly to DSAT via the MTPA”, he explained.
Mr Scott added that his association has yet to discuss the idea with DSAT and will simply send the reports to the bureau “whether they like it or not”.
He added that the Facebook group will continue to operate and the administrators will continue to welcome people to keep posting on the page. However, the information on the page will not be added to the blacklist/whitelist.
Apart from casting bad drivers out of the industry, the president said that his association also wants to help the good drivers in the system. That way, they would have the idea of a commendation system in their plan. “We would find a way to reward those drivers who have been whitelisted. Maybe we would do something like give them a sticker, a badge or maybe, for the really good ones, even buy them a really nice uniform and they can bring it into the MTPA once a month and we will dry clean it for them. As well as getting the bad drivers out of the industry, we really want to support and help the good drivers. [Because] we understand there are many good taxi drivers in Macau, and we want to support those guys”, he said.
Meanwhile, the association will be delivering its submission to DSAT this afternoon at 4.30 p.m. for the Public Consultation Process regarding the Macau Government’s Review of the Legal Framework Regulating Macau’s Taxi Industry. While he does not anticipate that any members from the Macau Taxi Driver Shame will go and support him, he is fine with anyone that decides to do so.
However, the president stated that the submission is not a parade or an action against DSAT and they support the government in tackling the problems.
Andrew Scott concluded that he was embarrassed and disappointed that Macau, a place he loves, is famous for its bad taxi drivers. “That’s actually the major reason why I have done all this. Because I want it to stop,” he expressed.
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