The Transport Bureau (DSAT) will launch a tender for 100 black taxi licences valid for eight years, according to an executive order signed by Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On.
The order was published in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday. It takes effect today.
According to the bureau’s website, there were 1,492 black taxis in the city at the end of the third quarter last year.
The order published yesterday does not state when the bureau will launch the tender.
The order states that the 100 eight-year-term licences cannot be extended when they expire. The order also states that the vehicles’ registrations have to be cancelled when the licences expire.
In addition to the bids for the additional 100 black taxi licences, the government said late last year that it will launch bids this year for a company licence to operate a further 100 radio taxis.
The current radio taxi company – Macau Radio Taxi Corporation – came into service in April last year. The government signed an eightyear contract with the firm in September 2016 for the operation of 100 special radio taxis.
According to the bureau’s website, nine radio taxis were damaged by floods during Super Typhoon Hato in August last year – so that 91 special radio taxis are currently in operation.
Meanwhile, the government also announced yesterday that the owners of black taxis that were damaged by Hato can apply to extend their taxi licences for six months.
The announcement was made in another executive order signed by Chui, which was also published in the gazette yesterday.
According to the order, the owners can apply to extend their taxi licences if they plan to replace the damaged vehicle with a new one. They have to submit their applications by the end of this month at the latest.
According to the order, the measure covers 850 eight-year term black taxi licences whose bids were launched on several occasions starting in 2012 – if they were damaged by Hato.
Meanwhile, several readers have recently told The Macau Post Daily that a rising number of cabbies are not using their taxi meters and demanding a “fixed fare” of at least 100 patacas for even a short ride.
This photo taken last month shows two taxis stopping at a pedestrian crossing in Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro. Photo: Tony Wong
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