REGIONAL> Society
Campaign launched against illegal taxi drivers
By Xin Dingding and Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-24 06:51

 Campaign launched against illegal taxi drivers

Taxis queue up outside the Beijing railway station for business yesterday. Fan Jiashan

A three-month nationwide crackdown on unlicensed taxis was launched on Friday in a bid to restore order in the legal taxi trade that employs at least 2 million people.

The action will target gangs that organize illegal cabs and individual unlicensed operators, a circular issued by the ministries of transport and public security said.

It encourages people to report illegal cabs, and equips law enforcement officers with facilities to collect video evidence. Those who violate the law will face charges, while others will be fined according to local regulations.

"Illegal cabbies are now prevailing in the taxi market and have developed into a stubborn ailment. In some places, they're so rampant that it has seriously disrupted the market order and threatened passenger safety," Feng Zhenglin, vice-minister of transport, said on Friday.

The illegal cabs were one of the reason for the strikes by licensed taxi drivers in several cities last year.

"They can charge less, so they take our profits away," Chao Shuchen, a taxi driver from the Xinyue United Cab Co, told China Daily yesterday.

Guo Shilin, a transport official from Yongdeng county, was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying many illegal cabby drivers are punished only with a fine of up to 20,000 yuan.

"We can't even revoke their driver's licenses. The punishment is not heavy enough to prevent them from returning into the illegal business," he said.

Without a unified punishment standard, the national crackdown will not completely solve the problem, Feng said.

Local governments should think of ways to fill the gap between supply and demand, an important reason for the conflict in some towns, he said.

"Sometimes I can't get a legal taxi in the morning rush hour, but there are plenty of illegal ones. They're usually shabby, but I have no choice," Song Jun from Beijing said.

Taxi drivers welcomed the campaign.

Chao said the best time was during the Olympics when no illegal cabbies were operating.

He said the crackdown will benefit him and other drivers.

But the government should cut the car-rental fee, which is 6,000 yuan and "too high", he said. "The rental fee is what we are most concerned about at the moment," he said.

(China Daily 02/24/2009 page3)