Two major taxi companies in Taipei City yesterday announced the end of discount policies after the Taipei City Government fined the two companies in an attempt to end a taxi fare war.
The department’s Public Transportation Division last week fined M-Taxi Club and A-Taxi Club NT$60,000 each for providing discounts to customers and asking taxi drivers to absorb the loss, and threatened to suspend their reservation -hotlines if they failed to cancel the discount policies.
In a joint press conference yesterday, marketing manager of M-Taxi Club Vincent Wu (吳毓耕) said the two companies offered alternative discount plans on May 30, but the department failed to organize a meeting to discuss the plans in accordance with the regulations.
“We have no choice but to suspend the discount plans, but we will consider applying for state compensation on behalf of the more than 3,000 taxi drivers who agreed to the plans,” he said.
Wu said many taxi drivers worried about losing customers after the discount policies were canceled, and said the companies are willing to absorb the losses if the department agreed with the companies’ revised discount plans.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications revised regulations and banned taxi companies from asking taxi drivers to absorb the losses from the discount policies and required all taxi companies to follow a single-fare system from June 1.
The department said yesterday that taxi companies should not ask taxi drivers to absorb losses without union agreement, and taxi companies violating the regulations will be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$60,000.
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