Hong Kong taxi fares likely to rise after city leader Carrie Lam calls for increase to fix industry’s quality, safety issues
- Carrie Lam says government will submit proposals to enhance the taxi industry’s service quality and safety
- Lawmaker for transport sector raises concerns over growing insurance premiums, advocates subsidies to reduce hazards, improve performance
Taxis are expected to increase fares soon, with Hong Kong’s leader calling a price rise necessary to address fundamental problems in the industry, especially service quality and safety.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told lawmakers at the first Legislative Council session on Wednesday that the government would submit proposals to enhance the service quality and safety of taxis.
“The proposals will also tackle taxis’ fare rise issues … If we want to improve service quality, we need to raise the fare,” she said.
“The incident has exposed some fundamental problems about the taxi industry’s development and even existence. It doesn’t have solid foundations to support its development,” she said.
“I encourage my colleagues to look into the core problems behind them and to muster up their determination and courage to tackle them.”
Lam said the Insurance Authority had seized control of the insurer to avoid thousands of taxis losing their coverage, adding that the financial secretary would look into ways to plug the legal loopholes.
A rise in fares was first proposed in 2018, with the industry asking for a 20.39 per cent, or HK$6, increase in flag fall for Kowloon and Hong Kong Island taxis to HK$30 (US$3.82).
Taxis serving the New Territories were also proposed for a HK$6, or 23 per cent, jump in flag fall to HK$26.5, while Lantau Island drivers would receive a HK$7, or 25.71 per cent, bump to HK$26.
The planned increases were much higher than the last fare rise to be approved in April 2017, when urban taxi flag falls went up by 10 per cent.
The fare increases previously ran into resistance from commuter advocates, who cited long-standing complaints about drivers who were rude, overcharged, cherry-picked passengers and took indirect routes.
Hong Kong Taxi Owners’ Association chairman Wong Po-keung said a fare increase was urgently needed for an industry battered by rising costs, declining incomes and an ageing workforce.
Insurers want monitoring devices in Hong Kong taxis for bad driving
“The industry has been grappling with rising operation costs such as inflation, rises in insurance premiums and fuel prices, and decreasing income hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
“We have been waiting for four years, a very long time. Only when we can improve our income would we be able to attract young drivers.”
Yick urged the government to improve service quality and safety by providing subsidies for taxi owners to install an electronic system to alert drivers if they tailgated or seemed drowsy, and bring attention to obstacles ahead or unindicated lane changes.
Costing several thousand dollars to install in each cab, the lawmaker said the system would be on top of in-vehicle dash cameras and could potentially fix drivers’ bad habits, prevent accidents and bring down skyrocketing insurance premiums.
“The Taxi Council has been testing this system and we hope the government could offer subsidies for taxi owners to install it in their cabs to reduce accidents, improve safety and even curb premiums,” Yick said.
