Just Saying | Hong Kong’s taxi mafia is real and Uber has no chance against thugs who won’t tolerate competition
- Yonden Lhatoo despairs at the sorry state of the city’s taxi services and asks why no action is being taken against thugs in the business who are shutting out competition through intimidation and collusion
I became an accomplice in a crime just the other day by hopping into an Uber taxi that a friend of mine had to hail because regular cabs passing by were refusing to take us across the harbour from the Kowloon side to Hong Kong Island.
The lawbreaking Uber driver was polite and friendly, his vehicle was clean and free of stale cigarette smoke, and there was none of the usual motion sickness-inducing wild swerving and jerking stops that you would expect on a regular taxi ride with a sullen cabby at the wheel. It did cost a bit more, but the convenience made it worth the price.
How ironic that our government and police will do next to nothing about taxi drivers cherry-picking passengers and destinations, even though it’s against the law to refuse a fare, but they’re on some unholy crusade against Uber drivers who provide a superior service – officially branded as illegal – that hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers prefer.
Much of it has to do with gutlessness on the part of the authorities to take on dog-in-the-manger taxi cartels that have conniptions over any attempt to introduce competition, and the lack of political will to challenge their protectors in a legislature compromised by vested interests.
And speaking of cartels, we’re already familiar with the thug-like behaviour of drivers and licence holders who take to the streets with unhinged belligerence every time anyone proposes anything to reform the industry, but now we have a taste of how far the taxi mafia can go to protect its interests.