Taxi drivers to tidy up for Olympics

by JeffHuang | June 25, 2008 at 01:48 pm | 279 views | 3 comments

Tigerfarms wrote an article on his experience in China with the taxi drivers here. "Some drivers complain the checks are too strict." I laugh at the drivers who is complaining. Have any of you readers been to China and experienced the taxi environment and also the ride? It is definitely an expierience of a lifetime. I grew up in Taiwan so I am used to crazy driving, but when I was in shaghai, they took crazy driving to a whole new level. During the ride, I was trying to figure out whether I was scared for my life, or that I am impressed by how good they are at driving under the circumstancs.
With all of my taxi taking experience in Asia, I have been on my shares of the taxi drivers re-routing in order to make the extra money. They absolutely have to cut out the re-routing practice some drivers are doing. My friend once got in a heated argument with a taxi driver over this situation and theres not much tourists can do about it.
Although I do agree with them being too harsh with the fining after an inspector found hair on a seat, but the conditions from the smell to the driving was horrible when I was there. Lets just hope with all of these changes being made for the Olympics, things arent going to go back to the way it is after the Olympics.

Beijing has started a month-long inspection of its 66,000 taxis. While citizens are generally satisfied with the improvement of taxi drivers' attitude and tidiness of the vehicles, some drivers complain the checks are too strict.

Although he could find more customers at the Beijing Railway Station, Zhao Shengli (pseudonym) of the Jinjian taxi company said he would try to avoid going there.

"There are inspectors," he said. "If they give me a notice for punishment, I would have to pay 200 yuan (about US28.6) as a fine -- I can only gross 400 yuan a day."

He said one of his colleagues was fined after an inspector found a hair on a seat. To ensure the taxi was clean enough, inspectors wear white gloves.

Started on June 12, the inspection was aimed at polishing Beijing's image as the August Olympiad approached, said Yue Xiujun of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Law Enforcement General Team.

More than 200 traffic supervisors will carry out surprise checks once a week. Other inspectors will monitor taxis at intersections.

The effort will focus on areas surrounding dozens of Olympic-appointed hotels in Wangfujing Street, a shopping and tourist area in downtown Beijing.

Drivers who refused to carry passengers to the due destination, make a detour so as to charge more, and those whose taxis were not clean would be fined hundreds or even thousands of yuan.

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justin_eisinger

at 15:21 on June 25th, 2008

Another day, another near-accident in Shanghai. Western road rules are meaningless in this city of 15 million, where pedestrians, scooters, bicycles, taxis and trucks all fight for the right-of-way. Here, a return trip to the hotel yields unexpected excitement when a car tries to turn right in front of us—from the left turn lane.

justin_eisinger has contributed a photo to this story.