Full-time taxi drivers last year on average earned NT$46,045 a month, a NT$1,583 decrease from 2015, a report on taxi operations released every two years by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said.
The data did not show whether the decrease was due to competition from Uber, the ministry said, adding that the US platform entered Taiwan in 2013, but the average monthly income of full-time taxi drivers had increased by NT$2,333 from 2013 to 2015.
There is about a 3 percent difference between the time period in which the data were collected for 2015 and last year, so the decrease might not reflect an actual decrease in drivers’ income, it said.
The data showed that from 2015 to last year, full-time drivers’ average monthly operating costs increased by NT$266, from NT$20,498 to NT$20,764.
Drivers who belonged to a taxi fleet had an average monthly income of NT$50,951 last year, NT$10,519 more than those who did not, the data showed.
Average monthly operating costs for those who were members of a taxi fleet was NT$4,444 higher than for non-affiliated drivers, but affiliated drivers still earned a net NT$6,000 more than independent ones, the report said.
More than 51.1 percent of full-time taxi drivers were members of a fleet last year, the data showed, the first time that more than half were part of one.
Drivers said they did not join a fleet because they did not want to be managed or restricted by a taxi company (36.2 percent) or the fees were too high (22.5 percent), the ministry said.
Full-time drivers worked an average of 9.8 hours per day last year, but their cars were vacant for 3.1 hours, or 31.6 percent, of those hours, the report said. They covered an average of 139.6km per day, 41.1km of which was without passengers, it said.
Compared with 2015, the taxis’ idle hours declined by 1.4 percent and distance driven without passengers fell by 1 percent, the report added.
The falling vacancy rates might have to do with changes in the way that drivers find passengers, as technology has helped reduce the time and distance taxis need to drive to pick up the next rider.
There were 87,604 registered taxis in Taiwan last year, 625 more than in 2015, the data showed.
Taipei and New Taipei City had the highest number of registered taxis at 28,450 and 22,243 respectively, the report said.
Taxis in the two municipalities made up 57.9 percent of taxi registrations nationwide last year, but the number in both municipalities declined by 300 to 400 from 2015 to last year, it added.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is seeking to join an Indo-Pacific economic framework being planned by the US, a senior official said. The government is paying close attention to the regional economic pact being touted by US President Joe Biden, although too few details have emerged from Washington for Taipei to make specific plans, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The US is expected to launch the Indo-Pacific economic framework next month after negotiations with Australia, India and Japan, the official said. The economic initiative is to tackle trade facilitation, standards for the digital economy and technology, supply-chain resiliency and
PIVOTAL ROLE: Taiwan’s importance in the global chip supply chain can be bolstered by domestic equipment manufacturing, President Tsai Ing-wen said Efforts must be made to better secure Taiwan’s place in the global supply chain by localizing production of equipment and facilities used by the semiconductor industry, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday. Tsai discussed the issue during a meeting with representatives from the Taiwan Electronic Equipment Industry Association at the Presidential Office in Taipei. Product shortages throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly of automotive chips — highlighted the pivotal role of Taiwan in the global supply chain, she said. Tsai thanked the association for cooperating with the government on the shared goal of localizing production of important semiconductor industry equipment.
SEPARATE CASE? A woman tested positive when she went with her daughter to be tested, because her daughter had taken the same bus to school as a steakhouse worker The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 10 local COVID-19 cases, six of whom had visited a steakhouse in Taoyuan where an infection cluster has been reported. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that of the 10 local infections, one case — No. 17,928 — is a Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport disease prevention staffer who works in the area where inbound travelers collect their saliva for a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and sometimes at the fever screening station. The staffer had tested negative in a PCR test on Jan. 9 and
TRACING UNDER WAY: The CECC has identified six transmission chains among 25 recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, including those linked to a restaurant and a bank The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 54 new COVID-19 infections — 44 imported and 10 local — and identified six transmission chains among local cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the imported cases are 18 who tested positive upon arrival at the airport and 26 who tested positive during quarantine. Of the local cases, seven are associated with a cluster infection at a Tasty Steak (西堤牛排) outlet in Taoyuan’s Zhongli District (中壢), one is linked to a family of four with COVID-19 reported on Monday, one is a family member of an
RSS