EGN NEWS DESK
The air is laced with cigarette smoke and Cantonese profanities as half a dozen taxi drivers hang around by their fire-engine-red cabs on a quiet nook of the gritty Prince Edward neighborhood of Hong Kong.
It is the afternoon handover, when day shift drivers move their taxis to these working the night time shift. They are surrendering wads of money to a taxi agent, a matriarchal determine who collects hire for the autos, manages their schedules and dispenses unsolicited recommendation about exercising extra and quitting smoking. The drivers wave her off.
There could also be no more durable process on this metropolis of greater than seven million than attempting to vary a taxi driver’s habits. Often grumpy and speeding to the following fare, cabbies in Hong Kong have been doing issues their approach for many years, reflecting the fast-paced, frenetic tradition that has lengthy energized the town.
But taxi drivers are beneath stress to get with the instances. Their passengers are fed up with being pushed recklessly, handled curtly and, in lots of instances, having to settle fares with money — one of many strangest idiosyncrasies about life in Hong Kong. The follow is so ingrained that airport employees typically should alert vacationers at taxi ranks that they should carry payments.
The authorities, each due to the complaints and to revitalize tourism, has tried to rein in taxi drivers. Officials ran a marketing campaign over the summer time urging drivers to be extra well mannered. They imposed a degree system by which dangerous habits by drivers — akin to overcharging or refusing passengers — can be tracked and will end result within the lack of licenses.
In early December, the federal government proposed requiring all taxis to put in programs to permit them to simply accept bank cards and digital funds by the tip of 2025, and so as to add surveillance cameras by the tip of 2026.
Predictably, many taxi drivers have opposed the thought of nearer supervision.
“Would you wish to be monitored on a regular basis?” mentioned Lau Bing-kwan, a 75-year-old cabby with thinning strands of white hair who accepts solely money. “The authorities is barking too many orders.”
Hold On to Your Seats
The new controls, if put in place, would sign the tip of an period for an business that has lengthy been an anomaly in Hong Kong’s world-class transportation system. Every day, hundreds of thousands of individuals commute safely on smooth subways and air-conditioned double-decker buses that run reliably.
Riding in a taxi, by comparability, might be an journey. Step into considered one of Hong Kong’s signature four-door Toyota Crown Comfort cabs and you’ll most certainly be (what’s the reverse of greeted?) by a person in his 60s or older with a phalanx of cellphones mounted alongside his dashboard — used typically for GPS navigation and different instances to trace horse racing outcomes. Pleasantries won’t be exchanged. Expect the gasoline pedal to be floored.
You will then reflexively seize a deal with and check out to not slide off the midnight-blue vinyl seats as you zip and switch by means of the town’s notoriously slender streets. Lastly, earlier than you arrive at your vacation spot, you’ll prepared your small payments and cash to keep away from aggravating the driving force with a time-consuming exit.
“When they drop you off, it’s a must to sort of rush,” mentioned Sylvia He, a professor of city research on the Chinese University of Hong Kong who, like many residents of this metropolis, feels conditioned to stroll on eggshells round a cabby. “I don’t wish to delay their subsequent order.”
To many cabbies, the impatience and brusqueness is a mirrored image of their harsh actuality: when scraping by in a enterprise with shrinking monetary rewards, no time might be wasted on social niceties. Lau Man-hung, a 63-year-old driver, as an example, skips meals and toilet breaks simply to remain behind the wheel lengthy sufficient to take dwelling about $2,500 a month, barely sufficient to get by in one of the vital costly cities on the earth.
“Some clients are too mafan,” mentioned Mr. Lau utilizing a Cantonese phrase meaning inflicting hassle and annoyance. “They wish to complain about which path to take. They inform you to go quicker.”
An Industry’s Fragile Economics
Driving a cab was an honest technique to make a residing. But enterprise has gotten more durable, made worse by the fallout of mainland China’s financial slowdown. The metropolis has had hassle reviving its attract with vacationers, whereas its bars and nightclubs, as soon as teeming with crowds squeezed into slender alleyways, now draw fewer revelers.
Even earlier than the downturn, some house owners of taxi licenses had been struggling. Taxi licenses are restricted by the federal government and traded on a loosely regulated market. Some house owners suffered large losses after a speculative bubble drove costs as much as practically $1 million for one license a decade in the past, then burst.
Today, licenses are value about two-thirds of their decade-ago excessive. Many companies and drivers who personal licenses are centered extra on recouping losses than on enhancing service.
Tin Shing Motors, a family-owned firm, manages drivers and sells taxi license mortgages and taxicab insurance coverage. Chris Chan, a 47-year-old third-generation member of the corporate, says Tin Shing is saddled with mortgages purchased when licenses had been value way more.
To chip away at that debt, Mr. Chan must hire out his taxis as a lot as attainable. But he struggles to search out drivers. Many cabbies have aged out, and younger individuals have largely stayed away from the grueling work. Profit margins have dwindled, he added, particularly with the price of insurance coverage nearly doubling lately. Uber, regardless of working in a grey space in Hong Kong, has additionally taken a bit of shoppers away.
“It’s more durable and more durable to earn a living,” Mr. Chan mentioned.
At the underside are the drivers, about half of whom are 60 and older. Many can’t afford to retire. They should make about $14 an hour to interrupt even after paying for gasoline and the hire of their autos. To them, money in hand is healthier than ready days for digital funds to clear.
A Blue-Collar Job Professionalizes
Tension between the general public and taxi drivers performs out with mutual finger pointing. When the federal government launched the courtesy marketing campaign final 12 months, a driver instructed a tv reporter that it was the passengers who had been impolite.
In some ways, Hong Kong’s taxi drivers embody the high-stress, no-frills tradition of the town’s working class. Their gruffness is not any completely different from the service one will get at a cha chaan teng, the ever present native cafes that gasoline the lots with egg sandwiches, prompt noodles and saccharine-sweet milk tea. Servers are curt, however quick.
“People are inclined to have one dangerous expertise and keep in mind it for the remainder of their life,” mentioned Hung Wing-tat, a retired professor who has studied the taxi business. “Consequently, there may be an impression among the many public that each one taxi drivers are dangerous when most of them simply wish to earn a residing. They don’t need any hassle.”
Indeed, there are cabbies like Joe Fong, 45, who sees no worth in antagonizing his clients and has tried to adapt to his passengers’ wants.
“Why struggle?” Mr. Fong mentioned. “We want one another. You want a trip and I would like your cash.”
Mr. Fong maximizes his earnings by splitting his time between driving a personal automotive for Uber and a cab for a taxi fleet referred to as Alliance. Mr. Fong has 5 cellphones affixed to his dashboard. He welcomes digital funds, and he didn’t elevate an eyebrow when Alliance put in cameras in all their taxis final 12 months.
“I’m not like these outdated guys,” mentioned Mr. Fong, who drives considered one of Hong Kong’s newer hybrid taxis made by Toyota, which appear like a cross between a London cab and a PT Cruiser. “The world has modified. You have to simply accept it.”
Olivia Wang contributed reporting.
