Hong Kong transport chief says rise in taxi fare accounts for earnings drop, but calls on industry to shape up
- Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung also says authorities focused on creating premium taxi fleet to help fix industry’s reputation
- Industry back in media spotlight after cabbies film themselves going undercover to report suspected illegal hire-car services to police
Hong Kong’s transport minister has argued that a HK$2 (26 US cents) increase in taxi flag-fall rates takes into account a drop in earnings among some drivers from pre-Covid levels, while calling on the industry to meet expectations amid tensions with Uber.
Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung also said on Saturday that setting up a premium taxi fleet was the government’s prime solution for fixing the industry’s reputation.
In addition, authorities were still working on a proposal to regulate ride-hailing platforms that would be unveiled in the middle of the year, Lam said.
The Executive Council, the city’s top decision-making body, last week approved an increase to flag-fall rates for red urban taxi trips from HK$27 to HK$29. The raise takes effect from July 14.
The minimum fare for green cabs based in the New Territories and the blue ones on Lantau Island will also increase to HK$25.5 and HK$24, respectively.
The transport minister told a radio programme that authorities had studied the income of taxi drivers before proposing the new rates, finding that cabbies’ monthly earnings stood between HK$17,000 and HK$20,000 last year.
“We then compared the 2023 levels with those of 2019. After factoring in some inflation, if I remember correctly, the income of some taxi drivers – those on Lantau Island – was worse than that in 2019,” he said. “We felt that would be no good for the long-term development of the taxi industry.”