Transport | Dongguan city backlists ‘bad taxi drivers,’ unlike Macau

TAXI drivers whose behavior was considered “uncivilized” after signing the “civilized service commitment” in the neighboring city of Dongguan, Guangdong province, could be blacklisted and forbidden from entering the city’s five main stations, Dongguan’s local English language magazine “Here! Dongguan” has reported.
According to the report, the Dongguan Taxi Association has been enforcing a change of attitude among local taxi drivers while it reforms and updates the infrastructure.
The association reportedly spent RMB200,000 (over MOP237,000) to update waiting bays with number plate recognition systems for the Dongcheng Terminal Bus Station, Nancheng Bus Station, East Bus Station, Humen Railway Station and Dongguan Train Stations.
In addition, only drivers who signed the agreement are permitted to enter those areas.

The agreement pledges that drivers are required to charge by the meter and without cheating; wait on orders; accept all clients; and refrain from bargaining or rejecting transportation and detouring. Technically, the agreement also enforces hygiene inside the taxis by not allowing food or drinks.

According to available information, a total of 5,624 taxis have been approved by the system that was put in place to change what was considered unacceptable behavior within public transport services and facilities.

Due to the cloud data shared among number plate recognition systems, drivers who break the rules will be forbidden from entering any of these stations for a period of between seven days to one year.

Meanwhile, in Macau, the Macau Taxi Drivers Mutual Association has been calling for a fare increase to “cover the [industry’s] high operating costs,” a measure that has raised many questions from Legislative Assembly lawmakers, who warned that such a “gift” from the government could provoke a serious backlash from the public, who largely feel a sense of  “chronic dissatisfaction with taxi services.”

According to 2017 figures quoted by the director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, there were almost 5,500 taxi infractions registered by authorities last year, amounting to a 32.2 percent year-on-year increase.

Most recently, due the increase of serious incidents reported to the police, the Public Security Police Force included a special section of the police hotline and mobile application dedicated to dealing with incidents of taxi driver malpractice in order to tackle the persistent and increasing problem of bad behavior by taxi drivers.

Last week the lawmakers of the 3rd Standing Committee, who are discussing a bill that aims to set a new juridical regime for taxi operations, agreed that the enforcement of the installation of a “a sound recording device” in the taxis would be “enough against the abuses” from the taxi drivers.

The topic has been in heated discussion as many think that the law should also mandate an image recording system, solution that has been “not yet completely refuted,” the president of the committee, lawmaker Vong Hin Fai said.

Another of the matters noted by several lawmakers on such committee was regarding the lack of staff from the supervising authorities to enforce the law.

The city of Dongguan is one of the cities in the “Greater Bay Area.” Macau is seeking to cultivate relations and cooperation with participating cities. Dongguan was the last stop in a Macau delegation led by the Chief Executive that toured all nine cities last month. RM