The highest bid in an auction for a taxi licence plate will no longer be a guarantee of success, according to legislator Chan Meng Kam, president of the Public Affairs Follow Up Committee of the Legislative Assembly, after a closed-door meeting with government representatives yesterday morning on the revision of taxi regulations, according to public broadcaster TDM Chinese Radio’s report. The legislator indicated that the government representatives said that in the instance of the last auction for the 250 taxi licences – valid for eight-years – secured by those who offered the best price it “would probably be the last time”. In future, it’s expected that bidding processes for taxi licences shall be held for companies and individuals. In the case of companies bidding price will only be one of the factors to be considered among other criteria; for individuals, there will be minimum requirements, such as limiting participation in bids to taxi drivers with years of experience. “The government representatives said they hope that in the future taxi [licences] will not be regarded as an investment tool,” said legislator Chan Meng Kam, president of the committee. “The government is inclined to have taxis managed by companies in order to enhance the regulations so as to improve service quality.” Mr. Chan said that according to the data provided by the government, in the first quarter of this year 1,277 taxi violation cases were logged by the Public Security Police Force (PSP). Although the total number amounts to a year-on-year decline, the number of cases of overcharging and refusing to take passengers both registered increases. According to the latest available data from PSP, in the first three months of this year there were 416 cases of overcharging and 472 cases of taxi drivers refusing to take passengers. Simplify procedure The revision of the regulation on taxis also aims at reducing bureaucratic tape in order to make inspection and prosecution easier. The government said that such revisions are all made in the hope of improving the taxi services. “One of the main goals of the new regulation is to simplify administrative procedures,” said Lam Hin San, Director of the Transport Bureau (DSAT). “The new draft will quicken the prosecution and fining process and hopefully speed up the whole process.” With regard to the newly drafted clause in the regulations that say taxi drivers will have their licence suspended when accumulating four violation instances in one year, the DSAT Director said that he believes four to be an appropriate number. Mr. Lam added that last year around 100 taxi drivers or licence holders violated taxi regulations four times within the year, while around 40 breached the regulations eight times in the year. He added that the revised draft will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly this month.
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