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Taipei City officials to boost efforts to supervise taxi fleets

The Taipei City Government yesterday promised to strengthen efforts to review taxi fleet service and cooperate with Taipei County Government to prevent fleets from using locations assigned to other taxi groups.

The city government made the move after two cab companies clashed over the right to line up in front of the Sheraton Hotel last week. Traffic was blocked when more than 50 taxis from Chuang Tung Taxi Fleet surrounded the hotel to protest its decision to cooperate with Taiwan Taxi Fleet.

"I won't allow similar incidents to happen in future. We will have the police department handle any taxi fleet turf wars," Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said during a municipal meeting at Taipei City Hall yesterday.

Police will enforce the inspection of about 8,000 line-up spots in more than 160 locations, including MRT stations, hotels and hospitals, Hau said.

The city's Transportation Department is only authorized to supervise taxi fleets at MRT stations, while hotels, hospitals and night clubs can make private arrangements with taxi fleets, department Director Luo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢) said.

Luo said his department conducts annual reviews to select the best taxi fleets, but some of them, such as Chuang Tung Taxi Fleet, were registered with the Taipei County Government, which means the city government had no authority over them.

Luo said his department would negotiate with the Taipei County Government and even Keelung City Government to resolve the issue.

"We plan to conduct taxi evaluations together and will publish the results so that people can choose better quality taxis," he said. "As a result, the quality of the city's tourism sector will be improved as well."
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