Hong Kong’s taxi trade is being dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty first century. Strikes to legitimise and regulate ride-hailing companies whereas enhancing providers provided by cabbies are lengthy overdue.
However members of the influential taxi commerce proceed to push for privileges and block the trail to progress. The federal government should take the handbrake off – and speed up.
Officers have needed to go to extraordinary lengths to modernise the trade and raise requirements.
Taxis are to be required to supply a minimum of two types of digital cost and set up cameras and units to report their journeys. There’s a new disciplinary system and fleets of latest “premium” taxis have hit the streets.
None of this could have been obligatory. The taxi trade ought to have eagerly embraced know-how and provided glorious service. That’s one of the best ways of competing with fashionable ride-hailing companies.
Crucial requirement is to ensure passenger security. The loss of life of a vacationer from the Philippines this month, knocked down by a “dizzy” 80-year-old taxi driver, has renewed long-standing considerations concerning the roadworthiness of aged cabbies.