Opinion | Beijing promises to solve its taxi problem with fare increase

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Taxi drivers queue up at a taxi stand at a shopping area in Beijing. Photo: SCMP

Published: 12:32pm, 17 Apr 2013Updated: 4:13am, 29 Aug 2013

Beijing's municipal traffic regulator has announced a series of reforms over the next two years aimed at ending the increasing scarcity of taxis in the capital.

"After one to two years, we want to create a balance between supply and demand in the taxi service," the Beijing Transport Commission said in on its website on Tuesday.

The city will introduce new measures including an increase in fares and a tentative liberalisation of the industry by putting an end to permanent licences for taxi companies. While not aiming at increasing the number of vehicles in the already congested city, the regulator says it wants to increase the number of cars on double shifts - driving night and day.

With these measures, Beijing administrators aim to guarantee that 80 per cent of the city's taxis operate during rush hours, assuring that more than 50,000 vehicles are on duty when the city's commuters need them most.

Being a taxi driver is becoming less and less lucrative. Except for a fixed-rate fuel surcharge, fares haven't changed since 2006 keeping salaries the same - even though the city's economic output has increased 9.1 per cent on average over the last five years, and consumer prices have soared.

The number of taxi drivers in Beijing has decreased in the last two years, the Economic Observer reported earlier this month. Only half of the 200,000 licences issues are actually used.

In future, taxi drivers will be the sole beneficiaries of fare hikes, the commission promised, according to a report in the People's Daily.

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