Taxi pooling could save passengers money after the Ministry of Transportation and Communications completes an amendment to taxi regulations next year.
Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯), director-general of the Department of Railways and Highways, yesterday said that the ministry was working on the principles governing how different taxi-pool rates will be calculated — including how each passenger should be charged when there are two, three or four passengers in a cab — in the amendment.
The amendment could also require that cabs offering carpool services identify themselves with special signs.
“The taxi driver would also be required to inform passengers at a taxi-pool stop of the expected waiting time before passengers consider going alone,” Chen said. “The rate would also be different if there is only one passenger in the taxi.”
Aside from regulations governing relations between passengers and taxi drivers, Chen said the amendment would also touch on taxi services, including the size of taxi fleets.
The department said during a ministerial meeting last week that it was scheduled to complete all the necessary amendments by July 31.
The department also said that there are currently 88,000 taxis operating across Taiwan. Though high, this represented a 22 percent drop over the past decade amid shrinking demand for the service.
Factors such as mass rapid transit systems have caused the supply of taxi services to exceed demand, it said.
While the taxi vacancy rate, which refers to how much time taxis spend driving around without passengers, has dropped from 80 percent in 2008 to 65 percent this year, it is still higher than what the ministry considers a “reasonable vacancy rate,” which is between 50 percent and 55 percent.
The department said disputes on taxi-pool fares and safety concerns were two factors that tended to discourage passengers from choosing taxi-pool services.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
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A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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