We all of us know of horror stories, or have experienced firsthand the challenges in Macau of getting a taxi, especially during peak hours.
Repeated calls to the 3 taxi companies will go unanswered. Queues of tourists wait for an hour or so on San Ma Lo to get a ride to the hotels and casinos on CoTai. Round the corner from my office, the taxi queue next to the BCM headquarters on Praia Grande is sometimes so pitiful; a good 60 or 70 people will be waiting with desperation on their faces, in the rain, for a taxi to come by … and stop. Many taxis I see just drive past unoccupied or let their passengers out and drive off, perhaps to pick up a more lucrative fare down the road.
Our roads are steadily getting more clogged with private cars and buses, and there’s a crisis of lack of carparks. Statistics show that in Macau there are between 400-500 vehicles per kilometer. The international standard is 270. Car ownership here has increased by 60%; there are 3.8 cars that fight for one parking spot.
I’d like to think that the Transport Bureau, (DSAT)’s every waking hour is spent coming up with workable solutions on out how to alleviate these problems that are so negatively affecting many of our daily lives. A good start would be in reducing car ownership. But if 2 or 3 car families are to be persuaded to stick with just the one car, then our taxi situation must be improved.
Right now with 30 million tourists a year visiting us, and almost 700,000 residents, there are only 1,000 taxis. Not enough, clearly, to cope with peak periods in a day, or servicing more remote areas such as Coloane.
But wait, rather than issuing more taxi licenses, surely there’s an excellent case for introducing a car hailing, shared ride service where the private authorized drivers work on an on-demand basis? Well infact Uber, being just such a company, started up here 6 months ago but they’ve not been given a warm welcome or an easy ride, if you’ll excuse the pun. The taxi drivers are of course up in arms at the increased competition. The Public Security Police (PSP) and DSAT have declared Uber illegal and threatened heavy fines on drivers caught. Passengers getting out of an Uber car have been pounced on by police, demanding to see their mobile phone messages to check if they booked an Uber ride.
Uber and their leagues of faithful fans are calling for the authorities to provide proper regulations to cover their services. Especially for UberPool, the newest App that can group riders going to the same place – meaning fewer cars on the road and reduced fare for the riders. Looking across at our neighbour there are encouraging signs; the Chinese Ministry of Transport has said it will work with ride-sharing applications to understand how ride-sharing services can be regulated in China. Users are not waiting however …. Uber is in 40 Chinese cities already and there are reportedly 500,000 pool trips in China every day.
Apart from improving the quality of life for us locals, (and give a thought to the elderly and the pregnant women who don’t have a car and cant wait on the street to get on a bus, Uber is a god-send for them), the company aims to support tourist growth; in the last 6 months, tourists from 54 different countries have used their services.
Quality of service is promised to improve. Right now things are extremely patchy in this regard and heaven help a non Chinese-speaking tourist wanting to get about town by taxi. Uber’s end of ride grading system will separate the wheat from the chaff and with polite, welcoming drivers, make traveling by taxi a more enjoyable experience.
Macau born and raised Trasy Lou, Uber Macau’s General Manager fervently believes that her firm can help local people get around the city and enhance the tourism image of Macau – by offering efficient and sufficient transportation. “Of course, there will be a lot of challenges and difficulties along the way but we believe the service is good for our city. We’re going to fight for it and we’re going to do whatever we need to do to make the government realize that Uber is bringing benefits to the city,” she says.
So come on guys, stop faffing about, lets get these people regulated so that Macau’s travelers can get about their business.
