Taxi Industry Shifts Focus to Fair Play after Hong Kong Passes Ride-Hailing Bill

Image: Sam Tsang/SCMP

Hong Kong’s taxi industry is gearing up for a new battle over fair competition in the wake of a ride-hailing bill’s passage, demanding a meeting with transport officials and warning that the government’s franchised fleet initiative may be undermined.

While industry bodies on Thursday broadly welcomed the long-awaited legal framework, they also pivoted to unresolved details, saying the new law would be meaningless without strict, equitable rules on licensing, vehicle standards and operational conduct.

A spokesman for ride-hailing platform Tada said the company considered the new regulations as an opportunity for collaboration among stakeholders and recognised that clear rules could balance innovation and fair competition.

But Ng Kwan-sing, a vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Taxi Council, said the government should set its priorities.

“The government ... has given birth to five sons,” he said, referring to the five recently launched franchised taxi fleets. “You have to truly pay attention to them first before you give birth to a bunch of so-called private car ride-hailing platforms to compete with taxis for business and drivers.”

Source: South China Morning Post

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Matt Daus and Eric Richardson

Matt Daus, Founder and Chair of the Windels Marx Transportation Practice Group, will join two forward-looking sessions focused on the convergence of technology, investment, and regulation in fleet operations.

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Canada Transport Safety Agency Flags Concerns over Record Cases of Runway Incursions

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Singapore's ComfortDelGro Taps QR Code Taxi Calls for Seniors

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Motorcycle Taxi Drivers of Cameroon's Douala Long for Jobs and Escape

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Taxi Drivers Hail Chelsea Rest Station

Image: Ben Fractenberg/The City

Inside the Taxi Clubhouse in Chelsea, cabbies and drivers for the ride-hailing apps can lounge on a row of massage chairs, kneel in ritual prayer, pound a punching bag in a basement gym or hit the gas on a “Ridge Racer” video game.

But for many Taxi & Limousine Commission-licensed motorists, a visit to the West 22nd Street clubhouse often boils down to the most basic of human needs. “I come here for the bathroom, the bathroom, the bathroom, OK?” [said] 58-year-old Samir Korkab … Agency data shows there are close to 178,000 TLC-licensed drivers, but access to restrooms tends to be in short supply.

Just 112 relief stands are scattered across four of the boroughs, allowing taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers to station themselves for up to one hour in order to unwind, eat, pray or find a restroom. Drivers’ difficulty in scoring parking spots can leave them scrambling for other options, forcing many to eat in their vehicles or to use empty bottles as urinals. “I had a customer in Brooklyn and I had to pee, but there was no restroom there,” taxi driver Isidore Yaguieou, 43, said on a recent visit to the clubhouse. “So I had to drive all the way here to use the restrooms — it gets tight.”

The issue of restroom availability and designated parking areas resurfaced last month, when drivers for Uber and Lyft rallied outside of City Hall in support of a City Council bill that would allow them to park in spaces designated for commercial vehicles. One of the 70 relief stands in Manhattan is directly across from the clubhouse, with parking spaces for up to 10 taxis and Uber and Lyft vehicles. The stand opened soon after the clubhouse began welcoming drivers in February 2023 and as the industry slowly emerged from a pandemic that battered the business and also reduced the number of places where drivers are welcomed to do what they have to do.

“The places the drivers had been traditionally going to use the restroom or going to rest were closed,” said Danielle DiTomo, the clubhouse’s director of driver experience. “We were continuously hearing from drivers that there was nowhere for them to go.”

Marblegate Capital Corporation, the Connecticut-based private-equity firm that is the biggest holder of taxi medallion loans as well as the city’s largest taxi-fleet operator, acquired the clubhouse in a merger with another finance company. Now it has plans to open two more clubhouses in the city at yet-to-be-determined locations. “This announcement is just the beginning of our efforts to bring more creative and common-sense solutions to the taxi industry,” Andrew Milgram, Marblegate’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Source: The City

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