Faced with Uber challenge, Hong Kong taxis look to boost image and launch app
- Complaints against city cabbies are hitting new highs and fares look set to rise, while Uber wins on service and convenience
- Some operators are bringing in better models and a new taxi-hailing app, but others say an industry overhaul is called for
Nurse Sunny Chan Yiu-lam commutes regularly between his home in Wong Tai Sin and workplace in Tseung Kwan O, making about 10 trips a week.
He travels by Uber most of the time. Its mobile app is easy to use, he knows when the driver will arrive, and he finds that Uber drivers are often more polite than cabbies.
As far as he is concerned, the ride-hailing company – whose services are illegal in Hong Kong, though still widely used – leaves taxis behind in terms of service.
“I’ve been turned down before,” he said, explaining his unhappiness with the service in taxis. “Sometimes taxi drivers say they are ending their shift, but you never know if it is true.”
Many other passengers in Hong Kong feel the same way. The number of complaints against taxi drivers is on track to reach a historic high, with cabbies’ refusal to pick up passengers topping the list of bad behaviour.
On average, about 30 complaints were filed each day during the first nine months of last year, according to the latest available figures.
Of the 8,149 complaints received by the government’s Transport Complaints Unit over that period, 2,044 were from passengers who said cabbies refused to take them where they wanted to go.