The government launched yesterday a public tender for the granting of 10 eight-year company licences each of which will be allowed to operate up to 50 common taxis, with the aim of meeting the city’s rising demand for taxi services.
The granting of the 10 company licences will enable up to 500 new taxis to serve the city.
Common taxis – as opposed to special radio taxis – are colloquially known as “black taxis” (“hak dik” in Cantonese).
The Transport Bureau announced the public tender in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday, when it also issued a statement on the matter.
According to the current law regulating the city’s taxi sector, which took effect in June 2019, only companies are allowed to bid for a licence to operate common taxis.
Before the current taxi law came into force, common taxi-vehicle licences were granted to individuals.
According to the current taxi law, a single company is only allowed to hold up to 300 taxi-vehicle licences. A company must have a minimum capital of five million patacas to bid for a licence to operate common taxis. Only locally-registered companies are allowed to bid for the licences.
The last time the government launched a public tender for granting new common taxi-vehicle licences to individuals was in 2018, when 100 new licences valid for eight years were bid for.
The public tender launched yesterday is the first tender since the current taxi law took effect in 2019, according to which common taxi licences are now granted to companies instead of individuals.
According to the gazette and the statement, the public tender launched yesterday will grant new licences valid for eight years to 10 companies for operating common taxis. Each winner can apply to operate up to 50 taxis.
Consequently, the statement noted, the public tender will grant up to 500 new common taxi-vehicle licences.
According to yesterday’s announcement, potential bidders are required to submit their tenders by November 23. DSAT officials will unseal the submitted bids at the DSAT headquarters on Estrada de D. Maria II the next day.
Each company can only bid for one taxi-operating licence comprising up to 50 taxis. The minimum bid is set at 2.5 million patacas. Each bidder will be required to pay a deposit of 3.5 million patacas, according to yesterday’s announcement.
Bid-assessment criteria
According to yesterday’s gazette, the bids will be assessed based on three criteria, namely the proposed price accounting for 40 percent of the scores, the proposed plan of how to run its fleet of taxis accounting for 50 percent, and the proposed kinds of vehicles accounting for 10 percent.
Before the current taxi law took effect – when common taxi-vehicle licences were granted to individuals, those who proposed the highest bids were granted a licence during a public tender.
Yesterday’s statement underlined that the government has decided to launch the ongoing public tender in the wake of the fact that more and more eight-year-validity common taxi-vehicle licences have gradually expired over the past few years. The statement said that the tender “aims to tackle” the city’s ongoing demand for taxi services.
According to latest DSAT available data, as of the middle of July, Macau had a total of 1,602 taxis, comprising 1,302 black taxis and 300 radio taxis.
In August, the government said that it was planning to launch a public tender later this year for 300 new common taxi-vehicle licences, but it said last month that it was considering the possibility of raising the number of new licences to 500 in the tender.
A taxi stops at a traffic light-controlled crossing on Avenida da Praia Grande yesterday. – Photo: Tony Wong
