The Taipei Public Transportation Office plans to increase taxi fares by 14 percent in October as part of broader plans to replace taxi fare machines, officials said yesterday.
Chen Juin-hong (陳俊宏), section head of the department’s general transportation section, said rates would be adjusted by tinkering with the fare formula, shortening the distance used to calculate fare increase increments from 250m to 200m.
Chen said that the base fare of NT$70 and increment amount of NT$5 would remain unchanged, adding that the plans still need to be approved at the Taipei mayor’s city government policy meeting next week.
Although the fare increase is set to be Taipei’s first in seven years, its finalization has been delayed by controversy among taxi drivers, with some fearing the fare hike will harm business.
The change is set to affect about 55,000 taxi drivers registered within the Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung metropolitan areas.
Chen said that the change would take effect in October once new fare machines are installed in all taxis operating in the region.
This year’s replacement of the fare machines will be the first time the region has fully replaced the machines, with previous fare adjustments accomplished by adding buttons or making other adjustments to existing machines, he said.
While some technical details are still under review by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the new machines would automatically print receipts for the first time, as well as combine both telecommunications and GPS functions, he said.
The region’s taxis currently provide only handwritten receipts, he said.
Chen said that the new machines’ telecommunication and data storage functions would provide statistics on passenger numbers and fare distances, allowing for precise calculations of average driver costs and profits.
Such statistics would make future fare adjustments and management of the city’s taxi fleet smoother by increasing the credibility of statistics used by the city to set fare rates, he said.
Individual taxi cab firms would also have the option of adding functions such as allowing payments via EasyCards, he said.
Chen said that Taipei would also consider reducing the number of taxi licenses issued, as part of a move to ensure cab companies more carefully enforce regulations requiring drivers to pass qualification tests.
The city is also considering allowing for different types of taxis providing different levels of service and charging different fares, he said, adding that while the city itself could authorize fare differentiation, it would have to gain approval from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications before allowing for different colored taxis.
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