Common taxis will soon join the mobile ride-hailing app for the city’s current radio taxi company, Macau Radio Taxi Services Limited, a senior representative overseeing the app’s operation, Sunny Wang Pei Shen, said yesterday.
Wang made the remarks while speaking to reporters at The Plaza Restaurant after a ceremony marking the establishment of a new association representing taxi drivers and other employees in the industry, San Ieng Taxi Employees Association of Macau, of which Wang is the founder.
Wang was previously the general manager of Macau Radio Taxi Services Limited. She now works as a consultant for the company.
The association was established earlier this year. Yesterday’s event was also the swearing-in ceremony for the first term of the association’s board members.
Wang said that her aim was for the inclusion of common taxis into the app to get off the ground during the upcoming Labour Day holidays.
Common taxis – as opposed to radio taxis – are colloquially known as “black taxis” (“hak dik” in Cantonese), as the colour of common taxis is black.
The city’s current radio taxi company, Macau Radio Taxi Services Limited, came into service in April 2017. Its current 300 radio taxis are not allowed to pick up those hailing a cab in the street. To use the company’s ride-hailing service, prospective passengers can phone its call centre or use its own mobile ride-hailing app.
In addition to being allowed to pick up passengers while travelling around the city, black taxis are also legally allowed to provide a radio taxi service. For instance, the Macau Taxi Drivers Mutual Help Association headed by Tony Kuok Leong Son is currently running a taxi call service – 2828 3283. Kuok told the Post earlier this year that a few hundred of the city’s black taxis are covered by his association’s radio taxi service.
Wang told reporters yesterday that about 400 black taxis will join the radio taxi company’s ride-hailing app initially, underlining that the company will continue to ask more drivers to join.
Wang noted that after the app’s new function gets off the ground, prospective passengers can also choose to book black taxis through the app, in addition to booking the radio taxi company’s vehicles.
Macau Radio Taxi Services Limited commissions a local IT company to operate its ride-hailing app.
Yesterday’s event also included the signing of a cooperation agreement between the app’s operator and the newly established San Ieng Taxi Employees Association of Macau for the joint operation of a programme to train black taxi drivers to use the app.
Wang also underlined that drivers of black cabs will not need to pay to join the app.
The association’s president, Dina Chan Un Kuan, is the current general manager of Macau Radio Taxi Services Limited.
The licences of 100 of the company’s 300 radio taxis are scheduled to expire on September 30 this year, while the licences of the other 200 radio taxis are scheduled to expire on May 31, 2028.
The company’s first 100 came into service on April 1, 2017, while the other 200 came into operation on December 1, 2019.
Sunny Wang Pei Shen, a senior representative overseeing the operation of Macau Radio Taxi Services Limited’s mobile ride-hailing app, speaks to reporters at The Plaza Restaurant in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Tony Wong
