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Taxi companies claim discrimination
Taxi companies have complained that they have not received any preferential policies from the Government, and are in fact facing discriminatory treatment.
The firms' long-lasting worry has been worsened after the Ha Noi Department of Transport proposed that the municipal People's Committee stop granting operating licences for new taxis as of March 1 this year.
Chairman of the Ha Noi Taxi Association Do Quoc Binh said yesterday the basis of the regulations were without foundation.
The department's proposal was based on the high number of taxis in the city which taxi operators had failed to manage. Lack of training of new taxi drivers was also blamed for the high number of traffic violations.
The department's Deputy Director Nguyen Hoang Linh said that in comparison with other provinces and cities nationwide, Ha Noi ranked second for the number of taxis, but first for assaults on police by taxi drivers.
"The decision aims to keep the number of taxis in the city under 12,000, which is suitable to the city's population and transport infrastructure," Linh said.
According to chief inspector of the department Thach Nhu Sy, taxi companies themselves have limited management capacity and lack parking facilities.
Many companies have installed electronic equipment to defraud customers, violated trademark usage and added to traffic congestion with their poor parking, Sy added.
Transport infrastructure has not matched the increased number of taxis. These factors contributed to traffic jams, civic disorder and environmental problems, Linh stressed.
Deputy Director of VIC Taxi Le Thi Bich Dao said that demand for taxis remained high as people did not want to wait for buses nor use motorbike xe om because of the danger, especially on holidays and during bad weather.
She said the proposal was unsuitable for taxi firms which were willing to buying new cars to ensure its safety standards for their passengers.
Nguyen Ba Quang, Executive Manager of the Manh Truong Binh company, said that the Government had price-subsidy programmes and separate stations for buses but taxi companies lacked parking ranks.
If they parked on some streets they were liable for fines as some organisations and individuals had already rented the lots, Quang said.
"And it is very unreasonable that because of the criminal behaviour of a few bad drivers who have assaulted police officers, that the department is going to limit the expansion of our businesses," he said.
Drivers have to meet all requirements set by transport departments and had experienced various training courses, and illegal actions were to do with individual drivers, not the companies, he added.
A driver from ABC Taxi said that driving taxis required high levels of concentration and was very stressful. He complained that sometimes the police had not been polite.
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Chairman of Sao Mai Taxi Pham Manh Hung said that most of taxi companies had signed contracts to buy new cars and they had had plans to expand business since last year.
If the companies bought the cars but the city did not grant licences, then the companies would be left with unused cars, taxes to pay and loans to repay, meaning they could face bankruptcy, he stressed.
He suggested the city authorities develop a long-term road map for taxi management so that companies would have enough time to prepare their business plans.
Chairman of the Ha Noi Taxi Association Do Quoc Binh said that last year, taxi companies served large numbers of passengers, contributed hundreds of billion of dong of taxes to the city's budget and created 20,000 jobs.
The development of public transport, including taxi businesses should be encouraged. But in fact, taxis companies were not given any preferential treatment of the Government to attract investment, Binh said.
The department could not blame taxis for traffic jams as each year, the number of taxis increased by 660, while vehicles owned by individuals rose by 30,000, Binh added.
According to the Ha Noi Taxi Association, in 2006, there were 38 taxi companies with more than 2,500 taxis. But by September last year, the figure had risen to 107 taxi firms with more than 10,000 taxis.
So far the city's People's Committee has yet to approve the proposal, but in principle agreed with it, deputy head of the Committee's Transport and Infrastructure Management Division Ba Van Thang said.
Ngoc Bich
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