Hong Kong's beleaguered taxi drivers form coalition to launch app to head off Uber threat

A new coalition of taxi drivers and operators is launching a smartphone app to allow passengers to hail cabs and rate drivers in a bid to address the sector’s long-running service woes and to head off competition from new operators like Uber.

Claiming a membership of over half of the city’s 40,000-odd taxi drivers and 17 industry groups which own over half of the 18,138 taxis on the road, the Hong Kong Taxi Trade Council announced its plan to the media yesterday.

The council’s committee said the “unprecedented move” to bring together the industry’s often disparate groups was a “much-needed” response to calls to bring in more regulation akin to a centralised supervisory mechanism – the lack of which was blamed as the cause of the city’s much-criticised taxi service in a Transport and Housing Bureau paper issued last month.

Last year, an all-time high of over 10,000 complaints were filed against taxi drivers, according to the government’s Transport Complaints Unit.

The city’s taxi industry is facing keen competition as car-hailing apps such as Uber gain popularity among Hongkongers, and has been calling for stricter regulation of its competitors. In August, police arrested seven Uber drivers and raided the American firm’s local office.

“The taxi industry has always been like a sheet of loose sand,” said Polytechnic University transport expert Dr Hung Wing-tat,  who is also the chairman of the council’s board of directors.

“Most drivers are self-employed, and that’s a feature of Hong Kong’s taxi industry. But this is also why a concerted effort for the development of the entire industry is lacking.”